Shot Through the Heart
by Iris RainbowWolf
Summary: Jayde Logan lost her mother five years ago. Her cousin Meredith lost her best friend. When Oliver returns he sets things in motion, and both girls are thrown into a world that they had been glancing at for a long time. Can they handle the dangers of working with a vigilante? Will either of them ever admit their feelings for the men in their lives? Mostly Roy/OC slight Oliver/OC.
1. Chapter 1: Five years ago

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter One -**

_**Five years ago**_

_It seemed as if everyone was loosing someone these days. Jayde had lost her mother, her cousin Meredith had lost her closest friend, and Jayde's best friend Thea had lost her father and older brother. With her closest relatives living all the way in aArica, Jayde was forced to live with her cousin, she would much rather get emancipated and live on her own, even though she wasn't old enough to do so yet. But Meredith was hurting too, and she needed the comfort of having someone by her side._

_Jayde watched as the familiar houses and buildings that inhabited the Glades rolled passed her, as she drove through the streets in the passenger seat of her cousins car. They had had just left her mothers funeral, and were going back to Jaydes' childhood home to pack up her belongings. These days that was all she did, go to funerals, she had been to three within the past week, first the funerals for Robert Queen and his son, Oliver. Jayde wasn't very close to either of them, however they were her best friends family, and Oliver was a very good friend to Meredith. Sometimes Jayde thought that there was more to that friendship than her cousin let on._

_When they pulled into the short driveway, Jayde's breath was caught in her throat. The police tape still hadn't been taken down since her mothers murder, and the house just looked so lonely._

_"Jay we don't have to do this now..." her cousin said, glancing over to the younger girl. Jayde just shook her head and opened the car door._

_After unlocking the door, Jayde kept her head down as she walked to the back of the house to where her bedroom was located, ignoring the blood that still stained the living room carpet. Once inside of the sanctity of her powder blue bedroom, Jayde let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding as Meredith came into the room behind her._

_Smiling, Jayde went over to her bulletin board and ran her fingers over the pictures that were pinned there, some of her and her mother, some of herself and Thea and even some of her and Meredith._

_"I remember when this was taken" Meredith said, pointing to one of the pictures in the middle, it was of Meredith, Jayde and Jayde's mother, all laughing and having fun at the beach._

_"Yea, that was the day mom decided that it would be fun to have a cook out at the beach" Jayde smiled. The two stayed silent for a moment before starting to move, putting all of Jayde's belongings into boxes and bags._

_Almost two hours later, Jayde was bringing out the last box of stuff. The two women had been able to successfully fit everything from Jayde's room into Meredith's car and still had a little bit of room to spare._

_"We are awesome" Meredith said as she put the box she was carrying into the trunk. But Jayde wasn't listening. Looking over to the younger girl who was still standing by the short chain link fence, Meredith saw that her cousin was looking at something. Her eye's steadily holding its gaze, as if entranced. Walking over to her and looking in the same direction, Meredith saw a young man with short blonde hair which was covered by a red hoodie. "Who's that" she asked a few minutes later, causing Jayde to jump slightly._

_"No one" she mumbled before walking towards the car. Meredith just shrugged and followed her, closing the now full trunk and sliding into the drivers seat, as Jayde went to the passengers._

_"So you're really not going to tell me who that guy was?" Meredith asked, Jayde just rolled her eyes and shook her head._

_"No. I'm not, because he wasn't anyone." she said._

**-/-**

_Many hours later Jayde, Meredith and Thea were sitting in the living room of Meredith's apartment, eating pizza, and watching movies. It may have just been the company, but Jayde actually felt like her self. She hadn't felt this good in a very long time._

_It had been a rough day. A rough couple of weeks, and all Jayde needed was a night in with the two girls who were closest to her. She needed to laugh and have a good time. As they finished up the pizza, it was started to get late._

_"So are you spending the night?" Jayde asked Thea, who nodded. "Alright, I'll grab some blankets and stuff in a bit" she added, she knew her friend didn't want to be alone in that big house with her mother. Although these days, Moira Queen wasn't the best of company, even to her only daughter._

_"Oooh, so Jay are you gunna tell me about that Hottie in the hoodie?" Meredith said with a playful smile._

_"What hottie?" Thea asked, causing Jayde to groan._

_"Mere it wasn't anybody, just some guy who lives in the Glades. Yea he was hot but I've never actually talked to him before." Jayde said with a shrug of her shoulders. She hoped that her cousin and friend would by it, it's not as if she was lying, but she wasn't telling the whole truth either._

_Thankfully the two let it go and began to talk about something else. "Hey, Mere, how did you and Ollie meet?" Thea asked, Jayde's eyes widened and she looked at her cousin, one thing that the two had a silent agreement about, they didn't talk about Ollie. Not until Meredith was ready._

_"Um.." Meredith began with a sniff, "well we were in middle school, probably around the same age as you two. And uh, this was before Oliver and Tommy turned into party boys." She added. Pausing for a moment, Meredith gave a small, watery smile and blinked back some tears. "my dad and i had just moved here from Gotham, Oliver and Tommy were the first people to really socialize with me" she said._

_As that was said, there was an air of sadness throughout the room. The three girls were silent for a short while, none of them knowing what to say next. Their moment of silence was broken by the doorbell ringing though the apartment._

_Wiping the tears from her eyes, and put her half empty wine glass on the coffee table, before going to see who was at the door._

_"oh hey Tommy" Meredith said quietly. "what are you doing here?" she asked._

_"I just wanted to see how you were doing." the dark haired told her._

_"I'm fine, Tommy." she said with a sigh. "look Jayde has Thea over, and she's had a really hard day. Soooo..." taking the hint, Tommy said his goodbyes and Meredith closed the door before returning to the living room where she found the two preteens getting ready for bed._

_"Night Mere." Jayde and Thea said before they began retreating into Jayde's bedroom._

_"Night girls." Meredith said as she began cleaning the pizza boxes and soda cans from the living room. "Oh Jay." she called, causing her cousin to turn around. "come here, i have something for you." Nodding, Jayde walked over to her, and sat down on the couch while Thea went into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth._

_"Whats up, Merrie?" Jayde asked. Meredith paused for a moment before removing the thin silver necklace from around her neck._

_"This was you're dads." was all she said before placing it in Jayde's hands. Jayde hadn't known her father, he had died in an accident over seas when she was just a baby. "after everything happened with you're mom it was given to me to give to you when you turned eighteen. But i figured you would like it now." Meredith said softly._

_"Thanks Mere." Jayde whispered, looking down at the small silver pendant. A bow and arrow._

* * *

**AN: hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Shot Through the Heart! Some of you may recognize my good friend _Miss E Charlotte_'s OC: Meredith. And some of you may even recognize my OC Jayde from some of my previous works. As always leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	2. Chapter 2

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Two -**

**Present day**

It was early in the morning when Jayde turned on the tv, she was barely listening to it as she made breakfast for herself, her cousin Meredith, and her small black pomeranian puppy, Onyx. As she was scooping some wet dog food into a bowl for her puppy, a text came through her cell phone. After placing the bowl on the floor, Jayde pulled the phone out of the pocket of her tight black hoodie, it was from Thea.

Jayde and Thea Queen had been best friends since elementary school, even though Jayde had grown up in the Glades and Thea, in the glitz and glamour of the upper class part of Starling City. Once they hit high school, however, the duo grew apart, but still made time for each other.

'_TURN ON THE NEWS_' was all Thea had sent. Obliging her friend, Jayde went into the living room and flipped through the channels before finding the first news station, instantly dropping the remote at what she saw.

Clear as day, in big bold letters 'OLIVER QUEEN IS ALIVE' ran across the screen. Jayde took a moment to comprehend what she was seeing. Oliver was Thea's older brother, and Meredith's best friend, other than Tommy Merlyn. Five years ago he had gone out to sea with his father and a 'friend', a.k.a his girlfriends sister, and the three were presumed dead.

"Mere!" Jayde shouted for her cousin, "Meredith get your bony ass in here!" shortly after, she heard a small 'thump' coming from the direction of Meredith's bedroom, shaking her head, Jayde turned up the volume on the television and sat down, Onyx jumping up into her lap.

"What is it?" Meredith said as she came into the living room, zipping up her pencil skirt. "I have to finish getting ready, or I'm gunna be late for work _again_" she stopped short when she saw what was on the news. "no freaking way" she whispered, as she saw video footage of her best friend and 'secret' crush being brought into Starling City General.

"Yea I think it's safe to say you're calling into work today" Jayde said, standing from the couch and getting her puppies leash and collar ready. Meredith just nodded silently as she stared at the words on the screen. It was just too good to be true.

Once Jayde had grabbed Meredith's car keys and everything else she needed for her walk with Onyx, Meredith turned off the tv and walked towards the front door.

"And by the way, my ass is _soooo_ not bony" she said, causing Jayde to laugh as they walked out the door.

**-/-**

It didn't take them long to reach the hospital, and once they got there, Jayde left Onyx in the car with the windows rolled down just enough to give the furry black puppy some air but not to much that the dog could jump out and hurt herself. Jayde didn't plan on staying at the hospital long anyways. Them being there was more for Meredith than anything else.

Once they reached the room they were told Oliver was in, the two women stopped to talk to Oliver's mother, Moira. The older woman told them that he wasn't speaking, not even to the doctor, but she encouraged Meredith to go into the room, in hopes of helping him to speak. Nodding, Meredith went into the room while Jayde took Moira down to the cafeteria for some coffee, before she herself left the hospital.

"Ollie?" Meredith whispered once the glass door closed behind her. Oliver was sitting on the hospital bed, his back to her. He didn't turn around to face her as she crept closer to him. Silently, Meredith put a hand on his now really well toned back, enjoying the feel his his skin under her hand.

Oliver let out a soft breath as she moved to stand infront of him, never letting her hand leave his body. Just to make sure that he was really there. Putting a finger under his chin, Meredith looked into his eyes. Once she did, she couldn't help but put her arms around him, holding on as if he were going to float away from her if she didn't. Slowly, Oliver slipped his arms around her waist and held on tightly.

"I've missed you Mere-Bear." he whispered. Hearing the nickname that only he was allowed to call her, Meredith grinned and burrowed her head into his shoulder.

"God, you're home Ollie. You're finally home."

**-/-**

After she left the hospital, Jayde went back to the car to grab Onyx. Before she left the parking lot, Jayde send a quick text to Meredith, letting her know that she was going for a walk with the puppy. With the thin powder blue leash in her hand, Jayde stretched quickly, before setting off from the parking lot in a slow jog with Onyx trotting happily next to her master.

It was a daily routine for Jayde ever since was fourteen years old. She would go for runs almost daily, which quickly became brisk jogs once she found Onyx. Jayde would start every morning with a jog before school, then after school she went to a little known dojo on the outskirts of the city, were she would do her homework, and train in a rare form of martial arts.

After almost three years of training, under the law, Jayde had to register her body as a lethal weapon. It wasn't something she bragged about however. She still wanted to be feminine and maintain a normal life outside of her extra curricular activities. Even Meredith did some training, she wasn't as lethal as Jayde was, due to the fact she was learning everything second hand from her little cousin, but she could hold her own.

Without even realizing it, Jayde had reached the outskirts of the Glades. Slowly, she transitioned her brisk jog into a slow walk, mainly for Onyx's sake. Eventually the small black puppy would get the hang of running with Jayde for long periods of time, but she was still just a baby.

The two of them walked the familiar streets side by side, every now and again, Jayde would pick up Onyx and hold her for a little while, before the small black lump of fur wriggled out of her arms, wanting to walk on her own.

Unexpectedly, Onyx tugged on the leashed hard enough for it to slip out of Jayde's hands. "Onyx!" Jayde yelled as the puppy took of running down the street. Even though the dog was small, she could run fast. Quickly, Jayde ran after her as fast as she could "someone, please, grab that dog!" she screamed, but she was left ignored.

Huffing for breath, Jayde came to a stop when she saw that someone had heard her yelling, and grabbed Onyx.

"Thank you so much" she said, as she was still trying to catch her breath. When she looked at Onyx's saviour, however, her breath caught in her throat. It was the boy she had seen all those years ago.

"It's no problem. Guess she just wanted to go for a run" he said, Onyx panting happily in his arms. Jayde just smiled at the irony, as the two of them had just got done running and were in the middle of a leisurely stroll.

"Yea i guess so." Jayde smiled. "I'm Jayde, by the way. Jayde Logan" she smiled.

"Roy Harper." was his response as he handing the puppy back over to her.

"And this misfit is Onyx" Jayde laughed as Onyx barked happily, as if introducing herself.

"Well... nice meeting you two." Roy said before turning to walk away.

He had gotten a few steps ahead of Jayde when she spoke up, "Hey Roy?" she said, still unsure of what exactly it was she was going to say. "Umm... I-I was wondering if you wanted to grab something to eat? As thanks for getting my dog for me?" she asked, biting her lip lightly.

Roy was silent for a moment before nodding his head and walking back towards her and Onyx. Smiling, Jayde let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding as they walked down the street, Onyx happily trotting between them with a smile on her little puppy face.

**-/-**

Later in the day, Jayde and Meredith were both home and getting ready for a dinner party that was being held at the Queen residence. As she was going through her wardrobe, Jayde thought about the events of her day, and couldn't help but smile.

_-Flashback-_

_After Jayde and Roy had gotten a few burgers to go from the nearest burger place, Roy had suggested that they go to a dog park that wasn't too far away, so that Onyx could run around and enjoy the nice weather. _

_ Once there, the two teens sat at the first bench they found and began to dig into their burgers. Jayde had let Onyx off her leash to let the little puppy run around. _

_ "You know, you kind of surprise me" Roy said as they had finished their food._

_ "Why is that?" Jayde asked, still munching on an onion ring._

_ "Well, most girls, they over do diets and stuff like that. Obviously, you're in really good shape, and can still put down a double bacon cheeseburger and a large thing of onion rings" Roy chuckled, stealing one of the onion rings from her._

_ Jayde just shrugged. "the way i see it, people don't need all those fancy diets and stuff, they can still eat what they want, whether its considered unhealthy or not, and as long as they work out and stuff, they can keep their weight at healthy levels." she said, running a hand through her dark hair as she watched Onyx run around a tree with another small dog not to far away from where they sat._

_ Laughing as Jayde watched her puppy play, she looked over at Roy and smiled. Even though they had just met, part of her knew that he was going to be a big part of her life. _

_ "So how did you come up with her name?" Roy asked, breaking the silence._

_ "Hm?" was Jayde's response._

_ "How did you come up with Onyx's name?" he laughed._

_ "Oh" Jayde said, looking back at her puppy who was trotting contently back to them. "Well, i didn't want to name her something as common as shadow or something like that. And most people look at her and automatically think she has some frou-frou name like Princess or Tinkerbell, just because of her breed." she said, lifting Onyx onto her lap and running a hand through the soft fur._

_ "You just wanted her to be unique" Roy nodded in understanding, rubbing a single finger on the puppy's soft black forehead. _

_ Jayde nodded as well and laughed when she saw Onyx licking the leftover burger grease off of Roy's hand. "I think she likes you." she said. Roy was about to say something more, when a text came through on Jayde's cell phone. "It's my cousin. Her friend just got back to town and i guess we're going to his house for dinner." she sighed as she sent Meredith a quick reply._

_ Jayde handed her phone to Roy when she noticed the disappointing look in his eye. When he looked confused, she just laughed. "Put you're number in" she said with a roll of her eyes. Smiling, Roy quickly added his number into her contacts and handed the phone back. Humming quietly to her cell, Jayde quickly snapped a picture of Roy and smiled as his phone began to ring._

_ "There. Now we can hang out again" Jayde smiled._

_-End Flashback-_

Jayde didn't hear Meredith enter her bedroom until she was standing beside her. As Jayde pulled out a short, black mini-dress and threw it on her bed, she jumped slightly and put a hand to her chest. "Mere, seriously, you have to stop sneaking up on me like that" Jayde chastised.

"Jayde. I've been in here for like five minutes. I even bumped into you're dresser, stepped on one of Onyx's squeaky toys and you still just stood there with that weird smile on your face." Meredith said, sitting down on Jayde's unmade bed and pulling Onyx onto her lap. "what _are_ you smiling about anyways?" she asked.

"I met a guy when me and Onyx went for that run earlier" was all Jayde said, the happy smile returning to her face.

"Ohhhh, dish!" Meredith said, causing her cousin to laugh.

"It was nothing, I'll tell you all about it later." she said with a shake of her head. "How do you feel about Ollie being back?" Meredith was silent for a moment, trying to think of the right words to say.

"I don't know. I mean obviously im happy he's home and stuff, you know? But I'm also kinda worried, because i think everyone is going to be expecting him to be the same Oliver he was five years ago. And after being on that island, I know he's not going to be" Meredith said quietly. Jayde nodded in understanding as she began to touch up her make up, before getting dressed.

"Yea i get it." Jayde said, after tugging on the tight dress. Meredith was already dressed, and the two of them were running late, thanks to Jayde not knowing what to wear. Even though they had known the Queen family for years and had been over for dinner many times, Jayde still never knew what to wear. She always felt like no matter what she wore, she was under dressed compared to Thea and Moira.

Sighing, Jayde went through her jewelry box, pulling out a pair of diamond hoop earrings that matched the bow and arrow necklace that she never took off.

"Come on Jay, we're already late as it is, you look great, lets _go"_ Meredith groaned when Jayde went back to her closet to find a suitable jacket to wearing. Hearing her cousin complain, Jayde settled on a black leather cropped jacket. After slipping on a pair of black and blue stilettos, the two of them were out the door.

**-/-**

It took them twenty minutes to get to Oliver's house, and they weren't as late as they thought. Once inside, Moira's husband Walter greeted them. "My don't you two look lovely. Everyone is in the dining room, why don't you ladies join them while i go check on dinner" he said.

"Thanks, Walter. We'll go do that." Meredith said as they walked into the large dining room.

"Ahhh, there they are." Moira smiled from her seat at the head of the table. "It's so good to see you girls again." she added. "Oliver, you remember Jayde, Meredith's cousin?" she asked her son.

"Of course, Mom. Jay, its good to see you again" Oliver smiled as he stood from his seat and walked over to them, giving both girls a hug. His arms lingering around Meredith longer than he intended.

After he let go, they all took their seats, and Walter came back into the living room with the maid right behind him with their meal.

"Okay so what have you missed" Tommy said as he dug into his food. "Superbowl winners, Giants, Steelers, Saints, Packers, Giants again." he paused for a moment before continuing "a black president, thats new. Oh! And on Lost, they were all dead." he added "i think" he put in with an unsure look on his face, which caused the girls to laugh.

"I think that was the point of the show. I mean its called 'Lost' for a reason, Tommy" Meredith put in, taking a bite out of the chicken on her plate.

There was a slight silence before Thea spoke up, voicing something that was on all of their minds. "What was it like there." At that, all eyes were bouncing back and forth between Oliver and his sister.

"Cold" he answered, his eyes steady on her.

"Tomorrow." Tommy interrupted "You, me and Mere, we're doing the city. You've got a lot to catch up on." he said, taking a sip from his wine.

"Tommy i have to work tomorrow." Meredith put it.

"pfft. Just blow it off, Mere you don't have any assignments right now. Plus I'm sure Douchebag Donnie will understand." Jayde said with a scoff. Her language catching most of the adults off guard. "what he _is_ a douchebag. And a creeper." she added with a shrug.

"That sounds like a great idea." Moira smiled.

"Good." Oliver put in. "Then I was hoping to swing by the office." he added.

"Well, there's plenty of time for all that. Queen Consolidated isn't going anywhere." Walter smiled.

Suddenly the maid, Riza, stumbled, almost dropping a bowl of fruit. Oliver helped her steady herself, and spoke to her in perfect russian. Awing everyone around him.

"Dude, you speak russian?" Tommy asked.

"I didn't realize you tool russian in college, Oliver." Walter said, obviously proud of Olivers' ability to speak the language so fluently.

"I didn't realize you wanted to sleep with my mother, Walter." Oliver responded as calmly as possible. There was an awkward silence in the room.

"I didn't say anything." Thea said, trying to defend herself.

"She didn't have to" her brother said, looking at his mother. Silently, Meredith put a hand on Oliver's knee. She knew about Moira and Walter being married, it was no secret. But she knew it probably wasn't easy for Oliver, seeing the looks his fathers friend gave his mother.

"Oliver," Moira began, taking her husbands hand "Walter and I are married. And i don't want you to think that either of us did anything to disrepect your father." she explained.

"Well, things just got a bit more awkward. Mere, I'm getting pretty tired, think we should go?" Jayde asked, not wanting to be in the room anymore. Meredith nodded and stood from her seat.

"Yea we're gunna go" she said, addressing everyone else at the table. "I'll give you a call later, Ollie, okay?" she asked him quietly, he just nodded and gave her a small hug.

"Meredith, don't forget about tomorrow" Tommy called after her as the two cousins left the room.

* * *

**AN: aaaaand there's chapter two! I wasn't going to post it tonight, but i really really wanted to, lol. anyways i'd like to thank the few people who have already followed this story and stuff, you guys make me smile. as always, leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	3. Chapter 3

**Shot Through the Heart**

**-Chapter Three-**

When Jayde woke up the next morning, Onyx was still snoozing away on the pillow next to her. Smilling, she ran her hands through the small puppy's fur before rolling over and checking her phone. She had one missed call from Thea, a text from Thea and another text. From Roy. Still laying in her bed, Jayde checked the message, ignoring the one from Thea for a little while. '_what are you doing today?' _he had sent her. With a smile, Jayde sent back '_wanting to sleep and hang out with a certain someone, but need to go to school. ;)'_ after she hit the 'send' button, Jayde tumbled out bed, trying not to wake up Onyx as she went to her closet to grab her school uniform.

Once she was dressed and did her hair and makeup, Jayde grabbed her phone, putting it into the pocket of her sweater before picking Onyx up in her arms. "I know sweetie, but its breakfast time and mommy has to go to school" she soothed when the puppy started to whine. "But dont worry, auntie Merrie will be home for a little while today. So you wont be all lonely" she added as she made her way to the kitchen to feed Onyx and grab herself something to eat before heading out.

While she scooped some wet dog food into Onyx's bowl, Jayde checked the message she had received from Thea. The text contained nothing interesting, just Thea telling her that she was going to get a ride from school from a friend of hers. Sighing, Jayde set the phone down on the counter. Just as she did, another message came in from Roy.

Quickly Jayde snatched up the phone and read what he had sent. '_oh yea and who would that be? ;p_' chuckling, Jayde back the words '_Onyx of course! lol_'. After hitting the send button, Jayde went back to finding something to eat.

The rest of the morning Jayde texted with Roy while she finished getting ready for school. When Meredith walked into the living room, she saw the smile on her cousins face and her fingers typing quickly on the cell phone.

"Oooooh talking to that boy you wont tell me about?" Meredith teased.

Sighing, Jayde put her phone down on the coffee table and looked at her cousin. "Mere" she said "i told you this last night. He's just a friend. He helped me out when Onyx's leash got loose and i bought him a burger. And he just so happens to be really hot" Jayde added.

Laughing, Meredith gave her cousin a light push before saying "get going, you're gunna be late for school." And with that, Jayde grabbed her back pack and was out the door. Shaking her head, Meredith looked down at Onyx who was chewing on a small piece of raw hide. "looks like its just me and you for a while kiddo" the puppy looked up at her, head cocked to the side before letting out a small, happy, bark and going back to eating her morning treat with a wagging tail.

After Meredith made herself some breakfast and finished cleaning up around the apartment, her phone started to ring. "Hello?" she said, after taking it out of her pocket.

"_Hey Mere. We're on our way to you._" It was Tommy.

"Alright, when do you think you guys will be here?" she asked.

"_We're outside you're __building_" he said.

"Just come on up, i still have to make sure Onyx will be okay while we're gone." Meredith groaned as she tried to hunt down the small puppy. In seconds, Oliver and Tommy were in her apartment.

"What are you doing?" Oliver asked as he gave her a hug.

"Looking for Onyx." Meredith said after pulling away from him and looking around the room.

"What's an Onyx." he laughed, Meredith just looked at him and smiled.

"It's Jayde's puppy. She found her a few months ago and practically forced me to let her keep the thing." Meredith laughed. When she saw Tommy sit down on the couch, she moved out from Oliver's arms to smack the back of Tommy's head "You could help me, ass hat. You know how Jay is about this damn dog."

"Hey she's not my responsibility." Tommy shrugged, causing Meredith to smack him again.

"I'll help you look for it, Mere." Oliver offered, causing her to smile.

"Thanks Ollie. Just... check the kitchen. I'll check Jay's room. She likes to hide in there sometimes so that she wont have to go in the crate for the day." Meredith said and the two of them walked out of the living room to look for Onyx.

Sure enough, Onyx was exactly where Meredith said she would be, curled up in a ball on top of the blankets that had slipped off of Jayde's bed. Laughing, Meredith picked the puppy up and brought her out into the living room where her crate was. "Found her." Meredith said, holding Onyx up with on hand.

Oliver came out of the kitchen and rose an eyebrow when he saw the small black puppy. "Thats Onyx?" he asked, rubing a finger over the pup's forehead, causing her to yip happily. "I don't know, i was expecting Jay to have something... bigger" he laughed, watching Onyx try and wriggle her way out of Meredith's arms so that she could go back to her warm hiding place.

"I dont know" Meredith said with a shrug as the two of them went back into the living room. "Jayde just came home with her after a run one day, and she never left." she added, placing the puppy gently on the dog bed that was inside of the crate, also inside was a small variety of dog toys, a light pink baby blanket and another peice of fabric that Oliver couldn't see properly.

"Yea that's Jayde sweat shirt" Meredith laughed as she saw what Oliver was trying to look at. Once she closed to latch to the crate, Meredith stood up and faced the guys. "Jayde put it in there when we first got Onyx, so that she wouldn't miss her when Jay was at school. It just ended up staying in there" she added with a shrugged before asking "so you guys ready to go?"

**-/-**

"You're funeral blew, by the way" Tommy said about a half an hour later as they were driving through the streets.

"You get lucky?" Oliver asked his friend, causing Meredith to roll her eyes from the back seat.

"Of course he did. All those mopey drama queens who actually had no idea who you were. It was like he hit the lottery." Meredith laughed.

"Shut up Mere." Tommy said, throwing a smile her way through the raerveiw mirror.

"You shut up ass hat" she responded, pushing his head lightly.

"And I'm counting on another target environment for your welcome home bash" Tommy said.

"My what?" Oliver said, a confused look on his face.

"Ollie, You came back from the dead. Of course Tommy wants to through a party. Shit he would have thrown a party when he got circumcised if he could" Meredith laughed. Tommy and Oliver laughed as well, knowing that it was true.

"Don't worry about it. You just tell me where and when, and I'll take care of everything." Tommy said as they stopped at a stop sign. "This cities gone to crap" Tommy sighed a minute later as they watched people scuffle through the streets, passed abandoned, run down buildings. "You know your dad sold his factory just in time. Why did you wanna drive through this neighborhood anyway?" Tommy asked.

Oliver just glanced out the window before saying "No reason" but Meredith knew it was more than that. Looking out the window, she saw what Oliver was looking at. His fathers abandoned factory.

"So what did you miss the most?" Tommy asked as soon as they started driving again. "Steaks at the Palm, Drinks at the Station... Meaningless sex." Oliver just looked at Meredith in the rear view mirror. It was obvious what he had missed the most these past five years. And it nearly made her heart stop.

"Laurel" Oliver said a moment later. It was a lie of course. But neither Tommy or Meredith truly knew that.

"Everyone is happy you're alive. You wanna see the one person who isn't?" Tommy asked.

Minutes later, they were dropping Oliver off at the small law firm that Laurel Lance worked at, and parking around the corner to wait for him.

"You know you should tell him." Tommy said as they waited outside for Oliver.

"Tell him what, Tommy." Meredith said, her arms folding over her chest. "There's nothing to tell him." she added.

"Look if you don't tell him..." he trailed off.

"What you are?" Meredith asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, Mere. If you don't tell him. You're going to loose him again." Tommy said. Other than Oliver, Meredith was his best friend. She was like a sister to him, and he knew how she felt about Oliver.

Meredith didn't have time to respond as Oliver and Laurel were standing near by.

"I know that it's to late to say this. But I'm sorry" they heard Oliver say.

"Yea, I'm sorry too." was Laurel's response. And it wasn't an 'i forgive you' im sorry coming from her. Not in the least. "I had hoped that you would rot in hell a whole lot longer than five years." Laurel added before she brushed passed Oliver and walked by Tommy and Meredith. "How did you two think that was going to go?" she asked, walking away before she could get a response.

"'Bout like that." Tommy said, watching her walk away. " Okay, so we took care of that, good call. Now we can make up for lost time. If you're not too sick of fish, i suggest we find the nearest sushi bar and..." he trailed off as a run down van pulled up, two men jumping out of the back, both of which were armed. "what the hell?" Tommy muttered before he was shot with a tranquilizer.

Meredith went to help him as he hit the ground, but not before she was hit as well. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was Oliver hitting the ground.

The first thing Meredith heard when she regained consciousness was the sound of a taser, followed by their captors voice "Did he make it to the island? Did he tell you anything?" the man asked angrily Meredith knew by now that they were talking to Oliver about his father. She tried to move her hands without drawing to much attention to herself, but they were zip-cuffed. When Oliver didn't answer the man, he was tased again

Opening her eyes slightly, Meredith saw Oliver steady his breathing as he worked at the zip ties that cuffed his hands together. "Y-Yes he did." he said.

"What did he tell you Mr. Queen." the masked man said.

"He told me I'm going to kill you." was Oliver's response. By now his hands were already free from the cuffs and were just being held behind his back as a ploy.

"You're delusional. You're zip-cuffed to that chair" Meredith could tell that the man was shaken, especially when Oliver rose his now free hands.

"Not anymore" Oliver said, and the fight ensued. He used the chair to take out the men, used one as a human shield as he was shot at and began was about to chase after the gun man, but not before checking on Meredith and Tommy.

When he checked Meredith's pulse, and saw that she was conscious, his eyes softened. "Go. Get them." Meredith whispered. Oliver nodded and chased down the third kidnapper. Meredith could hear the gunshots, and the man begging for his life. And then there was silence. All the while, Meredith was working at the zip-ties that held her hands together. "Dumb asses" she muttered as she sat up, positioning herself so that she could move her arms in front of her body. Making it easier to grab the knife she had hidden in her boot.

**-/-**

"So that's you're story." Detective Lance said as he said in the Queen's living room, looking at Meredith, Oliver and Tommy. "Some guy in a green hood flew in and single-handedly took out _three_ armed kidnappers." he added, looking between the three of them. "who was he. W-Why would he do that?" he asked.

"Well, he probably gives a shit about other people" Meredith said with a shrug. She didn't mean to snap at him, but she was tired and just wanted to get home. Not that she minded sitting next to Oliver, her shoulders under his arm. It wasn't uncommon for them to sit like that. But it felt good nonetheless.

"I don't know" Oliver responded, his arm tightening around Meredith's shoulder. "Find him, then you can ask him"

"Well... what about you two?" Lance asked, looking between Tommy and Meredith. "You see the hood guy?" he added, holding up the police sketch.

"I saw...just movement. Everything was kind of blurry. I-I was kinda out of it" Tommy answered, Meredith could tell that he was unsure of what he saw.

"What about you, Miss Logan?" the detective asked her.

"I wasn't hit with the tranq as hard as Tommy, so i was awake for most of." Meredith said. "I saw a man in green come in. Whether he was wearing a hood or not, who's to say." she said with a shrug.

"yea..." Lance trailed off. "It's funny. One day back and you not only already have a girl under your arm and somebody is already gunning for you. Aren't you popular." he said, causing Meredith to glare at him.

"You know, Detective. If you did any kind of homework at all, then you would know that Oliver and I have been best friends since we were twelve. So before you start passing judgement. I suggest you take a step back." Meredith growled. She didn't like her relationship cheapened in any way. Especially by someone like Laurel Lance's father.

"Where you able to identify the men?" Moira, who sat across from the trio, asked as she tried to diffuse the tension between Meredith and the detective.

"Scrubbed their identities. Used untraceable weapons. These were pros" said detective Lance's partner.

"Yea" Lance nodded. "someone probably figured that you would pay a King's Ransom to get your boy back. Or a Queen's Ransom as it were. After all, a parent would do anything to keep their child safe.

"yea some parent" Meredith scoffed under her breath, quiet enough for only Oliver to hear, causing his grip on her shoulder to tighten.

"I don't find you tone appropriate detective." Moira said.

Walter took that as his cue to stand and begin to escort the detectives out. "If Oliver can think of anything, we'll be in touch. Thank you gentleman, for coming." he said.

Detective Lance just couldn't leave it at that however, as he turned and said to Oliver "Your luck never seems to run out, does it?" he asked.

"Good by Detective. Thanks for coming." Meredith said with a smile. She just wanted him to leave.

Once the Officers were gone, Walter returned to the room. "Tommy. It's been a long day, do you think you could bring Meredith home?" he asked, Tommy went to stand, but Oliver stopped him.

"If it's alright. I would like to take Mere home." he said, looking down at the woman under his arm. After everyone was in agreement, the two of them went into the other room to grab their jackets. "You know we need to talk" Oliver said to her silently. Meredith gulped and nodded her head, not wanting to make eye contact with her friend.

About a half an hour later, they had reached Meredith's apartment and Oliver was sitting on the couch while Meredith let Onyx out of the crate and letting the puppy stretch her legs and get some food and water.

Sighing, Meredith sat on the couch next to him. "So... let's talk" she said, sitting a little farther away from him than she was earlier at his house.

Oliver, unsure of what to say to her, he ran his hands over his face with a soft sigh. "I'm sorry that happened to you today." he said after a while. Meredith just nodded.

"Um... yea you don't have to apologize Ollie. You didn't know that was going to happen to us" she said quietly, taking the knife she had use to cut the zip-cuffs out of her boot, causing Oliver to raise and eyebrow. "I know what you did Ollie and i..." but she couldn't finish her sentence as Oliver interupted her.

"Mere..." he started "You didn't see me do anything." Meredith just looked up him. she knew that Oliver had been the one to take out the kidnappers. But yet here he was, denying it, when she could help him deal with whatever was going on in his head.

"Yea," she nodded, keeping her head down. "yea you're probably right"

**AN: well there's chapter 3! hope you guys enjoyed it. Also i would like to thank Miss E Charlotte, highlander348 and Grayfoxfan for reviewing and i hope to hear more from you guys. And another big thanks to Miss E Charlotte for allowing me to use her OC Meredith in my story and for helping me plan this story. Tune in next monday for chapter 4 :) As always, leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	4. Chapter 4

**Shot Through the Heart**

**-Chapter Four-**

The next night was Oliver's coming home party. Jayde had wanted to go, but since she wasnt old enough to be in the club yet, Meredith wouldn't let her. So, she helped her cousin get ready for what was sure to be the party of the year. It also helped that Meredith had said that Roy could come over and watch a few movies while she was out. Meredith trusted the younger girl to be alone with a boy, sure she knew that Jayde wasn't a virgin anymore, but she was seventeen. And Jayde had never done anything to break Merediths trust.

"Oooh what about this one?" Jayde asked as she pulled out a slip of red fabric. It was a red off the shoulder dress that was short on one side, and slightly longer on the other. Meredith smiled and took the dress from her.

"You know im gunna have to steal those black heels back from you right?" she laughed after a minute or two, Jayde just smiled and nodded before she ran back to her room to grab the shoes and she was back a few seconds later.

Sitting down on the bed, Jayde pulled Onyx onto her lap and began playing with the puppy's paws. "Mere, are you sure it's okay that Roy comes over tonight?" she asked, not making eye contact as her cousin changed into the dress.

"Jay come on, you're a good kid, i trust you. Plus, you just met the guy. It's not like your going to screw him right now." Meredith said as she pulled her hair out from under the dress. "besides, like i said, you're a good kid." she smiled. Jayde nodded her head, put Onyx back on the bed and went over to Meredith's vanity so that she could do her cousins hair and makeup.

"so i'm thinking something natural, like a light gold, for the shadow. Then a little bit of mascara and liner. Maybe some pink gloss?" she asked as she pulled out all of the utensils she needed. Sure Meredith could do her makeup herself, but this is what the two of them did. If the other one had a date or was going to a party, they would do the hair and makeup.

Looking in the mirror, Meredith nodded her head and pulled back her hair so that it didn't get in the way. Two or three minutes later, her makeup was done and Jayde was now moving onto her hair.

"So what do you think?" Jayde asked, wondering what hair style Meredith wanted for the night.

"Hmm... how about a loose braid, little bit of curl?" she suggested, Jayde just nodded before plugging in the curling iron, letting it heat up. As Jayde began to brush her hair out, Meredith spoke up. "So what are you going to wear for you date?" she asked.

"It's not a date" Jayde groaned "Roy's just a friend who's coming over to watch a movie. That's it, end of story." she said, as she took the curler to her cousins hair.

"Mmm-Hmm. Sure. I believe you." she said watching in the mirror as Jayde did her hair. Curling it loosely, and then braiding it, letting the braid fall over her shoulders, with a few curled tendrils framing her face.

"There, now you look pretty" Jayde said, stepping back and sitting on Meredith's bed again.

"Thanks Jay." Meredith smiled as she slipped on the black stilettos. Jayde just shrugged and helped Onyx jump off of the bed. "So when is Roy going to be here?" she asked.

"Any minute now" Jayde shrugged, as if on cue, the door bell rang causing Jayde's eyes to go wide. "Shiiiit he's here!" she said, running into her room, as Onyx ran to the door. Laughing, Meredith followed the puppy to let Roy in.

"Ah, you must be Roy" she smiled as soon as the door opened and Onyx jumped into the boys arms.

"Um, yea. You're Meredith right? Jayde told me alot about you" he said. Meredtih could tell that he was slightly nervous.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be out of you guys's hair in a few minutes. Jay, Roy's here!" she shouted, walking into the living room with Roy behind her.

"Be out in a minute!" Jayde shouted back.

"Have a seat Roy." Meredith smiled as Onyx began giving the teen small wet kisses. "Seems like Onyx really likes you." she added, causing Roy to nod. "Dude, don't worry so much, I'm not gunna kill you or give you the 'if you hurt her' speech. Because i could tell just by looking at you, that you're a good kid." she said with a grin.

"Thanks." Roy nodded. A few seconds later, Jayde came out of her bedroom, wearing a pair of tight black skinny jeans, a white tank top and a pair of black booties.

"Ahh there she is. Well, I'm gunna be late. Be good, call me if you need anything" Meredtih said, giving Jayde a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Nice meeting you Roy."

"Nice meeting you too." Roy responded. And with that Meredith was out the door.

**-/-**

It didn't take long for Meredith to get to Olivers party. She was even there before he was. Quickly she got a drink at the bar and found Tommy. Just as she did, Oliver walked in.

"Everybody! Hey hey hey! Man of the hour! Hey ladies please give this man a proper home coming." Tommy said, clapping his friend on the back before handing him off to a parade of scantily clad women, causing Meredith to roll her eyes.

She watched as Oliver stood up on the near by bar as Tommy poured three shots of tequila. One her himself, one for Oliver and the last for Meredith. Groaning she took the shot glass from her friend

"Thank you very much everybody!" Oliver said, addressing everyone at the party. As Tommy handed him the shot glass, everyone rose their own glasses, toasting to him, before he downed the shot. "I missed tequila!" he added, before sending a wink in Meredith's direction, causing her cheeks to flush. After wards, Oliver got down from the bar and went over to his friends.

"Hey does he wipe for you too?" Tommy asked, eyeing Oliver's newly appointed body guard, casuing Meredith to roll her eyes.

"You're such a dick, Tommy." she said, taking a sip from her drink.

"You know you love me Mere." he smiled before turning back to Oliver. "Now, by my rough estimate, you have not had sex in about one thousand eight hundred and thrity nine days as your wing man i highly recommend Carmen Golden" he said, pointing to three girls who were dancing on a table not to far from them.

"Of course when it comes to sex, Tommy becomes a math whiz" Meredith said, sending a smirk to her friend.

"How long has it been since you got some Mere?" he joked, causing Meredith to slap him playfully.

"Which one is she?" Oliver asked, laughing at his friends antics.

"The one that looks like the chick from twilight" Tommy responded, causing Meredith to almost spit out her drink.

"Whats twilight?" was Olivers next question. Meredith figured that Tommy had forgotten that Oliver was on a deserted island and didn't know about one of the latest teen fads.

"You are so better off not knowing." Meredith laughed. The three of them talked and laughed for a minute before Oliver got distracted. Following his line of vision, Meredith saw what had saw. His little sister handing a few bills to a man, and the man handing her a small baggie of white powder.

"I'll be back in a minute" he said, kissing Meredith's cheek before going to talk to his sister.

"What's that all about?" Tommy asked Meredith, who just shrugged. She knew about Thea's drug problem because of Jayde. It was one of the reasons why the two teen girls didn't hang out as much anymore.

"I dont know" she lied. "come on, Tommy i need another drink" she said. Tommy nodded and the two of them walked over to the bar. Meredith's eyes not leaving Oliver. She watched Thea walk away from him, and then saw him go to the nearest trash can, dropping the small baggie inside.

She watched as Oliver turned around, and bump into Laurel. "I hate you" she groaned at Tommy.

"Why do you hate me now?" he asked with a smile as he handed her a glass full of blue liquid. Meredith just nodded in Oliver's direction. "Oh, that. Look, Mere i asked her to come here so that they could be friends again" he said.

"right" Meredith scoffed. "So who's going to be the first to tell Ollie about what you two have been doing, you or her?" she asked, sipping her drink. "Tommy, i get it, you like her. You thought Oliver was dead, things happen. But you know how much Ollie cared for her."

"Mere, you know by now what my argument to that is. When are _you_ going to tell Oliver how you feel" Tommy said, folding his arms over his chest. "Look what me and Laurel have, that's new. If it meant Oliver being happy, I'd end it."

"No you wouldn't" Meredith interrupted with a scoff.

"But, you and Oliver? _That's_ something that would make him happier than anything i could do and you know it." with that Tommy walked away, leaving Meredith alone at the bar. Sighing, she sat on one fo the benches and thought about what Tommy had said.

**-/-**

Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Jayde and Roy had ordered a pizza and were trying to decide on what movie to watch. As Jayde went into the kitchen to grab some soda's a plates for the pizza, Roy was in the living room looking at her movie collection, trying to find one to watch.

"So you find anything good yet?" Jayde asked when she came back into the room, placing the soda's and plates on the table as she sat on the couch, tucking her feet underneath her.

"Yup." Roy smiled as he showed her the DVD case. "6 Souls. Hope you don't scare easy" he laughed.

"You wish" Jayde laughed back as he put the disc into the player. Once it started loading, he sat down next to her on the couch and the duo began eating. "oh my god, she is a stupid bitch" Jayde laughed when they were a few minutes into the movie.

"seriously. what person in their right mind would deal with that?" Roy laughed with her.

They continued to watch the movie, laughing every so often and making small conversations here and there. As the movie dragged on, Jayde started to get tired and rested her head on Roys shoulder. Smiling down at her, he moved slightly so that she could be more comfortable, and put an arm around her shoulder. Shortly after she was fast asleep, as he kept on watching the movie. Hoping ever so slightly that she would wake up, but at the same time wanting her to keep her head on his shoulder.

**-/-**

Oliver hadn't been seen for a little while. Meredith just figured he was mingling amongst his party guests. Normally, at a large party like this neither Oliver nor Tommy would leave her side, just so that nothing would happen to her. But now Meredith had seen how much times had changed as she sat by herself drinking a martini.

Just then, Meredith noticed Detective Lance leading a swat team into the party. One of the Officers went over to the DJ and made her shut down the music.

"Search the building, roof to basement! Find him!" Detective Lance shouted the men. "Parties over kids." he added. Curious, Meredith went over to where Tommy stood. "Oh Mr. Merlyn, Miss Logan, imagine my shock finding you two here. Did either of you meet anyone special tonight? Huh?"

"well, i did meet this guy for a quickie in bathroom, but i'll spare you the details" Meredith said sarcastically. Who was he to come here and make assumptions and essentially call her a slut.

"Detective, this is a private party" said Oliver as he came up to stand next to Meredith.

"Yea well there was an incident at Adam Hunt's building tonight. You three know anything about that?" Lance asked.

"Who's Adam Hunt?" was Olivers response.

"A millionaire bottom feeder. And im kinda of surprised you aren't friends. " the detective responded.

"Well, if he's as bad as you say, _Detective_, then maybe he deserves whatever it was he got" Meredith said, folding her arms over her chest.

"Besides, I've been out of town for...a while" Oliver said, putting a hand on the small of Meredith's back.

"Yea, well, he just got attacked by the guy with the hood. The guy that save you're asses the other day." Meredith still didn't like the Detective's tone.

"Oooh the hood guy?" Meredith cooed, feigning excitement. Pretending she was the floozy the man constantly made her out to be.

"You find him, I'm gunna offer him up for a reward. Hey everybody!" Oliver shouted to the crowd. "Two million dollars to anybody that can find a nut bar in a green hood"

Detective Lance turned to leave, but something inside him stopped him as he turned around and faced Oliver.

"Did you even try to save here? Did you even try to save my daughter?" he yelled at Oliver. Meredith just cocked an eyebrow.

"All that anger isn't good for you detective. You might have an aneurysm." Meredith seethed. Detective Lance just glared at her.

"You better watch your mouth young lady, or I'll have you arrested."

"Oooh I'm _soooo_ scared." Meredith said. "What are you gunna book me for Lance, talking back? Disrespecting my elders? Last i checked neither of those were arrestable offenses. Just poor manners" she said as Lance's partner coaxed him out of the room. Once he was gone, Meredith turned to Oliver and said "Ollie, i think i'm just gunna go home. It's getting late and i have work in the morning. Plus Jayde hates being home alone." The last part wasn't necessarily a lie, Jayde did hate being home alone, however she wasn't home alone.

"Alright Mere-Bear, I'll call you tomorrow okay? We'll hang out or something" he smiled. Meredith smiled as well, gave him a tight hug, breathing in his scent before letting go and walking out of the building. Thankful that she had walked to the party instead of taking her car.

By the time she made it back home, Meredith was barefoot, the stiletto heels starting to hurt her feet. When she opened the door, the first thing she noticed was that the living room light was still on, as was the television.

Walking further into the apartment, and into the living room, Meredith saw Jayde curled up on the couch with her head resting on Roys shoulder. Roy was half asleep himself, having been woken up by Meredith coming home.

"We were just watching a movie and fell asleep" Roy tried to explain quietly before Meredith could even say anything.

"Hey it's okay, Roy, i know nothing happened. Normally I'd tell you that it was late and you should head home, but if you got up, Jay would wake up. And she's grumpy when that happens. So... I'll just grab you two a blanket and call it a night" Meredith said, and at that she went into jade's room, grabbed the blanket off of her bed and brought it out to Roy, who was already fast asleep. Chuckling, she placed the blanket over the two sleeping teens and went to her own room and got ready for bed.

* * *

**AN: well there's chapter four! i hope all of you enjoyed it :) anyways i'd like to thank Ravenmore45, Hope, Hayden, and highlander348 for reviewing and all of you who have Favorited/followed this story, you all make me smile. Big humongous thanks to Miss E Charlotte for helping me with this story and for the use of her OC Meredith Logan. As always, leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0( **


	5. Chapter 5

**Shot Through the Heart**

**Chapter Five**

When Jayde woke up the next morning, she was confused as to why she was sleeping on the couch. And confused about her current, warm pillow. Opening her eyes, she saw Roy, who was also in the midst of waking up.

"Morning" he smiled, causing Jayde to blush.

"Uh, M-Morning" she said. "Looks like we didn't finish the movie" she added with a slight chuckle, remembering that they were watching a movie the night before when she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. How they ended up laying down on the couch with her head on his chest, Jayde had no clue.

"Up and at em guys, I'm making pancakes!" Meredith yelled from the kitchen, causing Jayde to flinch and bury her head in Roy chest under neath the blankets.

"I dont want to" she pouted.

"C'mon princess." Roy said quietly as he began to sit up, taking Jayde with him. Groaning, Jayde sat up and ran a hand through her hair. "You look fine" he added, as if reading her mind. "Come on I think your cousin's grabbing a squirt bottle" he laughed when Jayde's eyes widened. Obviously it wasn't the first time Meredith had used water to wake her up.

"Seriously, you guys, if you don't get in here now, Onyx is going to eat them all." Meredith called out to them again.

"Alright, jeez, we're coming" Jayde shouted back. With that, the two teens walked into the kitchen to grab their breakfast.

"So you guys sleep alright?" Meredith asked as Jayde made her and Roy a cup of coffee.

"Ugh, I have about a million knots in my back." Jayde said as she sipped her Roy just said he slept fine, still feeling slightly awkward about sleeping on the couch with Jayde, and the fact that Meredith had said that he was a good kid and that she trusted him.

"Might have been better if you guys slept in the bed" Meredith said with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders, Onyx barked in agreement as she munched on her pancake mixed food. Meredith's comment made Roy almost choke on his coffee and caused Jayde's eyes to widen.

"Ooookay on that note I'm gunna go get changed" Jayde said, putting her cup down on the small table in the kitchen. "Be nice to him" she said to her cousin in a low voice before she left to go into her bedroom.

"I'm always nice" Meredith called after her, before she closed the door to her bedroom Jayde could hear Roy chuckling.

Once in the sanctity of her bedroom, Jayde ran a hand through her messy black hair and let out a shaky breath. She hadn't known Roy all that long, and they were already waking up together. Not that she was complaining, but she wasn't expecting it. After taking a minute to calm herself, Jayde walked over to her closet to look for something to wear.

Minutes later Jayde was dressed in a pair of stone washed skinny jeans, a red plaid button up with a white tank top underneath and a pair of red converse high tops. As soon as she was dressed, she did her make up and threw her hair up into a loose ponytail before heading back out into the kitchen.

"Feel better?" Meredith asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Much yes" Jayde smiled, grabbing a pancake off of her cousins plate. "Hope she didn't bug you to much" she said to Roy, who just shook his head.

"Nah there was very little bugging." he said with a smile. "She was actually just telling me about her job. Which is actually pretty cool" Roy added.

"I even took a picture of him see?!" Meredith said, showing her cousin the picture. "Now Jay, go stand next to Roy, I want one of the two of you." Groaning, Jayde went to stand next to Roy. "Oh come on seriously? Act like you two freaking know each other jeez" she said with a roll of her eyes.

Almost instantly, Roy's arm went around Jayde shoulder, and her head went to his chest. Smiling, Meredith snapped the picture, and Jayde stepped to the side, almost automatically wishing she hadn't.

The trio ended up going into the living room and watched TV for a little while. "Jaay, hand me my phone" Meredith said, reaching for her cell phone which was on the table. Groaning, Jayde removed her legs from Roy's lap and handed her cousin the phone.

"There you big baby" she mumbled before returning her legs to Roy's lap.

As she checked her phone, Meredith smiled when she saw she had a text from Oliver asking her if it was okay for him to come over. Quickly Meredith sent a reply before putting the phone on the arm of the couch. "Ollie's coming over" she said with a smile causing the two teens to look at her.

"Oh ew, she has that look on her face, when's he going to be here?" Jayde asked.

Meredith paused for a minute to check her phone before saying "he just left the house, so he should be here in about twenty minutes or so."

"Okay" Jayde said, taking her legs off of Roy and standing up. "C'mon Roy, we're gunna take Onyx to the park. Trust me you _don't_ want to see how those two act together. It's gross" she laughed. At the word 'park' Onyx's ears perked up and she looked at her master. "yea little girl, we're going to the park." Jayde said to the dog. Letting out a happy bark, Onyx walked out of her dog crate and jumped up, as best as she could, on Roy's lap.

Letting out a small laugh at the puppy's antics, Roy waited as Jayde went to grab Onyx's leash and collar. "Thanks for letting me stay last night" Roy said to Meredith once Jayde was out of the room.

Meredith just shrugged. "It's fine. Like i said last night, i knew nothing happened except sleep. And you're both good kids. No harm, no foul" she said, "besides, I think it meant a lot to Jay." Meredith added, causing Roy to smile and nod. In no time, Jayde was back in the room and strapping the collar on Onyx.

"Ready to go?" she asked Roy, who nodded and stood from the couch.

"Nice meeting you Meredith" he said.

"You too." the older woman smiled. And with that, the two teens and the puppy were out the door.

About a half an hour later Jayde, Roy and Onyx were walking through the park. Jayde had brought some tennis balls with them, so that Onyx had something to chew and play on, along with some dog treats. "So you're cousins pretty cool. You know, for an adult" Roy said as he tossed a small tennis ball and watched Onyx chase after it.

"Yea," Jayde said, watching her puppy struggle to hold onto the ball "Mere's pretty much like a teenager, except she can legally buy alcohol" she laughed. Roy nodded and smiled as Onyx finally brought the ball back to them.

Throwing the ball for her again, Roy watched her run after it. "She's still cool though. I mean she let me stay last night and she didn't need to do that."

"It's cuz she likes you" Jayde answered, looking at him with a large smile and sparkling eyes. "She trusts you. Mere wouldn't have you stay with me last night if she didn't"

Roy was silent for a moment as they walked, looking at Jayde's small black puppy rolling around in the grass, playing with the tennis ball. "even though we've only known each other for two days?" Roy asked with a smile.

"Mmm-Hmm." Jayde nodded. "Especially because we've known each other for two days. She knows me well enough that I wont just jump into bed with a guy i've only known for a couple of days. Sooooo... yea" she laughed, causing Roy to laugh along with her.

They walked around the park for a little while longer before Roy said that he should be heading back to his house. As much as Jayde wanted to spend more time with him, she let him go. Taking out her cell phone, she looked at the time and decided to give her friend, Thea a call.

**-/-**

After Jayde and Roy left for the park, Meredith sent a text to Oliver saying that when he got to her apartment, to just let himself in. Without even waiting for a reply, Meredith went to take a shower.

Humming as she stood under the stream of hot water, Meredith let out a sigh. It had been along time since her and Oliver had spent one on one time together. Since he's been back, whenever they were together, they were surrounded by their family and friends. It would be nice for them to spend this alone time together.

Faintly, Meredith heard the door to her apartment open and close. Normally the noise would of had her on age, and ready for an attack, but she knew who was in her apartment. Smiling, she finished washing and stepped out of the shower.

"Ollie, I'll be out in a minute!" Meredith said, cracking the bathroom door slightly. Right before the door closed again, she heard him say that it was fine and to take her time. Rolling her eyes, Meredith quickly through her wet hair up in a sloppy bun and began getting dressed.

Seconds later, she was walking out of the bathroom, using her towel to dry her now loose hair. As soon as she saw Oliver, however, she dropped the towel and caught him in a tight hug, breathing in his scent. Something she would never tire of.

He held her there tightly for a minute, before kissing her temple softly and pulling away. " So how was your night last night?" he asked when they sat down next to each other on the couch.

"Eh, nothing to complain about" Meredith answered with a shrug. "Jayde had a friend over, so i just went to bed after i came home from the party."

Oliver just nodded, looking at his hands. "yea we missed you after you left last night" he said, causing Meredith to smile.

"Well that's good, at least you and Tommy haven't gotten sick of keeping me around yet." she said.

Oliver finally looked at her and smiled. "We would never get sick of you, Mere-Bear." he said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him, causing her breath to catch. Just as it always did when she was close to him. "Besides" he said after a minute or two of silence. "if you weren't around, then i couldn't do this..." he trailed off as he moved her chin to face him. And before she knew it, Oliver's lips were on hers.

Meredith didn't know if it was a dream or not. But whether it was real or just a dream, her body responded with as much vigor, moving closer to him and deepening the kiss. The next thing she knew, Oliver had her on her back, kissing her neck before moving back to her lips. She didn't want this moment to end,she had thought and dreamed about it day after day since high school. Even more so when he was gone.

"Mere" Oliver whispered on a labored breath. "we have to stop" but he didn't. His lips were still on hers. His hands roaming up and down her body.

When she suddenly felt cold, Meredith opened her eyes and saw that Oliver had gotten off of her, and was sitting on the other side of the couch, running a hand over his face. " I can't do this Mere. But _god_ i want to" he sighed. Meredith didn't know what to say.

The next thing she knew, he was out the door. And her apartment never felt so cold and lonely.

**-/-**

After leaving the park, Jayde and Onyx made their way to the Queen's mansion. Recently, Jayde had been over less and less, and it made her feel as if she was being a bad friend to Thea. Especially with Oliver being back, Jayde knew that her good friend would need someone to talk to.

It didn't take Jayde long to get to Thea's house. Not even bothering, Jayde walked in, carrying Onyx and went straight to Thea's bed room. When she reached the door to her friends room, Jayde heard loud music coming from the other side. Rolling her eyes, she pushed the door open and let Onyx roam inside leash-less.

What she saw on the other side wasn't a shock, Thea was standing near her desk, wiggling around to the music as she rubbed a lighter at something on the surface of the desk. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Thea was doing. Sighing, Jayde stepped into the bedroom before closing the door behind her.

Turning down the music so that she could actually talk to her friend, Jayde walked over and sat down on the small couch that was located in the large bedroom.

Thea turned around sharply with a glare in her eyes when she realized that Jayde was there.

"Jayde!" she said happily. "Awww, and you brought Onyx!" Thea said happily as she bent down to pet the puppy.

"Thea, i just got done telling you i was coming over." Jayde said with a roll of her eyes.

The other girl seemed to think about it for a minute before saying "Oh yea!" with a large smile on her face. "So what have you been up to my dear friend" Thea said, plopping down on the couch.

"Nothing" Jayde shrugged, she wasn't ready to tell Thea about Roy yet. Not until she sorted out her feelings. "Just been hanging out around the apartment and stuff. What about you?" she asked.

"Ugh" Thea groaned "I went to Ollie's welcome home party last night. He's was _such_ a buzz-kill. Like he really doesn't get that im not twelve anymore, you know?"

"Thea, he's been gone for five years. All he know's is twelve-year-old-Thea, give him some time to get to know seventeen-year-old-Thea. Maybe even ditch the blow." That was a common conversation between the two friends ever since Thea started doing drugs. No matter how hard she tried, however, Jayde couldn't get through to her. She knew that in order to get Thea to stop using, something drastic would need to happen. Jayde just hoped that it happened sooner rather than later.

Rolling her eyes, Thea picked Onyx up and put her on the couch next to Jayde. "Not this again, Jayde." she groaned.

"Look, I'm not here to get all preachy." Jayde said quickly. "Honestly i just came here cuz i missed you." she added, giving her friend a hug. "and i wanted to raid you're closet" she laughed.

For a few hours, the two girls went through Thea's enormous closet, just having fun, trying on all sorts of different outfits. And as usual, when Jayde left, she took a large duffle bag full of clothes Thea no longer wore. It wasn't as if she needed her rich friend's hand-me-downs, Meredith made enough money to keep both of their wardrobes pretty size-able. But Thea couldn't think of a better person to give her clothes to than her best friend.

Walking home with an overstuffed duffle bag in one hand and a leash that connected to a puppy that insisted on pulling wasn't ideal for Jayde. But it wasn't as if she hadn't done it before, with even more stuff.

Almost a half an hour later, Jayde returned home. After struggling to get through the door, she saw Meredith sitting on the couch, just staring at the coffee table with her chin resting on folded hands.

"Mere..." Jayde trailed off, as she let Onyx off of the leash. "Mere whats wrong?" she asked, putting the duffle bag down in the entrance to the room and walking over to her cousin.

"Oliver, he, uh..." Meredith didn't know how to explain to her cousin the events of her day. She could barely make sense of it herself. "He kissed me Jay." she whispered.

"Whoa." was Jayde's response, slowly she sat down on the couch next to Meredith.

"A-And it wasn't like a small little cheek or forehead kiss either" Meredith added. "It was a full blown 'i want in your pants' kiss."

"S-So did you?" Jayde asked. "I-I mean am i sitting in left over Ollie and Mere sexy-time juices?" she added, trying to make her cousin laugh.

Meredith just shook her head. "No he, uh, he left. He just pulled away, said that we shouldn't be doing anything, and then just... left. Didn't even say goodbye, that dick"

Jayde and Meredith sat in the living room watching TV for a little while before Meredith decided to make dinner. And after a meal of spaghetti and meatballs, Jayde retreated into her bedroom.

Since it was just the two girls in the apartment that night, Jayde didn't bother closing the door to her room as she went to her closet and moved some things around to get to the hidden safe that sat there. Opening it, Jayde pulled out a few articles of leather clothing, a pouch and a photo album. Setting the clothes and the pouch to the side, Jayde looked through the book of pictures. All of which were of her mother. Some pages were filled with newspaper clippings, all focusing around her mothers murder.

With a sigh, Jayde put the book back into the safe and began to change into the leather she had pulled out. A pair of black leather pants, a black long-sleeved crop-top underneath a leather vest. Sitting on her bed, Jayde slipped on her black ankle high boots. Once dressed she went over to her vanity and pulled out the black grease-paint she kept hidden in one of the drawers. As she started to apply it around her eyes, Meredith came and stood in the door way.

"Going out tonight?" she asked. Keeping her head slightly down, Jayde nodded.

"Yea." she said. "There's this guy down in the Glades, he hits every two weeks. A real sicko. Slices girls up in alley ways. The cops haven't been able to get him yet because none of the survivors can identify him." she added. Every now and again, Jayde would done her black leather and creep through the Glades, stopping muggers, wife beaters any small time criminals she could get her hands on.

"You need any back up?" Meredith asked. Every now and again Meredith would accompany Jayde on her late night activities.

"Nah i think I'll be good" Jayde said with a shake of her head as she coated the grease paint around her eyes. "Well," she said as she stood from her chair and walked over to her bed and started strapping blades to the black belt that hung around her waist before pulling on her black leather gloves. "You know the drill. If I'm not back in four hours..."

"I'll come looking" Meredith finished for her. They had an agreement whenever Jayde went out, if she was gone for more that four hours that means that something went wrong and she needed back up.

Jayde nodded, climbed on her bed and opened the window behind it before climbing out onto the fire escape. Waving a good bye to her cousin, Jayde turned and went down the fire escape as Meredith switched off the bedroom light.

It didn't take her long to reach the Glades. She sat on the fire escape of an abandoned apartment building, over looking the alley the mugger was known to frequent. Just waiting for the man to show up.

When he finally did stalk into the alleyway, Jayde waited even longer. It would be no good if she struck before he attempted an attack, otherwise she could be attacking an innocent drunk.

He didn't take long, pulling the first woman to pass into the alley. As soon as they were far enough away from the street, Jayde jumped from the fire escape and landed almost silently behind the man who was preparing to cut up and torture an innocent woman.

"You know, you" Jayde started as she walked towards him, her heels clicking on the cement. "You are a hard man to track down" she continued, causing the man to spin and face her, a knife to his victims throat.

"Oh yea?" the man said, causing Jayde to roll her eyes. "How'd you find me then?" he asked.

"unlike the cops, i can go outside of the law to take down scum like you" Jayde said. Quickly she unhooked a blue handled ring dagger from her belt and threw it, hitting the hand that held the knife to the womans' throat, causing him to let her go. "I suggest you run" she said to the woman, who did as she was told. When the man turned to do the same, Jayde was already on him, throwing another blade to cute at his Achilles tendon. He wasn't going anywhere.

"Your a fucking crazy bitch!" he yelled.

"That may be so." Jayde said with a shrug, twirling two more blades around her fingers. "But at least I'm not the psychopath carving up women in an alley way now am I?" she added, swinging her fist towards his face, causing the blade to slice at his skin.

"what do you want from me!" he shouted, putting pressure on his bleeding ankle. Jayde didn't answer him at first, opting to send a roundhouse kick to his jaw, throwing him backwards.

"I don't want anything from you." she said simply as she knelt next to him. "you're not my type." she added before grabbing a chain off of a near by dumpster. "In twenty minutes" Jayde began as she lifted the man up. "I am going to call the police anonymously" she continued, using the chain to link the man to the fire escape. "and they will come and get you." she made sure that the chain was tight, not allowing the man any movement. "and you will tell them who you are and what you have done."

In exactly twenty minutes Jayde was sitting on her previous perch, watch the police file into the alley, watching them cut the rusted and bloody chain from the mans wrists. And watching them cart him out in hand cuffs.

"Just another scum bag off the streets." she muttered to herself as she headed back home.

When Jayde climbed back in through her bedroom window, she saw the light from the living room and knew that Meredith was waiting up for her. Just like she always was. After changing quickly, and wiping as much of the grease paint as she could off of her face, Jayde went into the living room to let her cousin know she was home.

"Any casualties?" Meredith asked when Jayde sat on the couch next to her, still flipping through the magazine she was reading.

"No" Jayde shook her head "Everything went according to plan" she said, putting her head on Meredith's shoulder.

* * *

**AN: woo chapter five! hope ya'll enjoyed it! so what do you guys think of my precious little Jay-Bird kickin' a little butt? awesome right! Anyways i want to thank every one for following and adding this story to their fave's. Also i want to thank Miss E Charlotte, Ravenmore45, highlander348 and BehindGreyEyes for reviewing. **

**I would also like to take this time to point out that Jayde and Roy are NOT together...not yet anyways. I don't know if i had made that clear or not throughout the story thus far, but i firgure i'd point it out anyways, just in case there was any confusion. Anyways, As always, Leave love )0( Irish RainbowWolf )0(**


	6. Chapter 6

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Six -**

It had been a week since Oliver had come home. Today was the day that the courts were legally declaring him alive. Meredith wished she could be there for him, but she had work. The paper she worked for had sent her on assignment to take pictures of a local business man who was being accused of taking bribes and commiting the murder of an innocent man.

Meredith couldn't make heads or tails of the case, she wasn't a lawyer, she was a photographer. But in her gut she knew this man was guilty.

As she snapped a few pictures of Martin Summers, Meredith saw Oliver and Tommy walking out of the courthouse. She smiled and sent them both a small wave before she snapped a few more pictures. When the rest of the journalists and photographers saw Oliver walking by, they ignored the task at hand, and swarmed around Oliver.

She snapped a few pictures of him, some for herself, and some for her work. Once she pulled the camera down so that she didn't have to see through the camera's lens, she saw Oliver get into the car and speed away.

"This happens to you alot doesn't it?" Meredith heard Tommy ask Oliver's new body guard. It seemed as if Oliver was constantly slipping away from the man hired to protect him.

Ever since their heated make out session at her apartment, Oliver had been avoiding her. A part of her wanted to call him every single day since he walked out, but another part of her wanted to make him suffer.

Sighing, Meredith left the rest of the crowd and went to her own car, not even bothering to talk to Tommy, she couldn't deal with him at the moment. Putting her camera back in it case, Meredith checked her phone, seeing that she had a missed call from Jayde she turned the key in the ignition, spurring the car to life as she speed dialed her cousin and put the call on speaker phone.

After a few rings, Jayde picked up. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?" was the first thing Meredith said. It was a completely logical question, considering it was the middle of a school day.

"'_Mere, we had a half day today, remember?_'" Jayde said with a laugh. "'_I'm actually on my way home now, just wondering when you would be done with work. I was thinking Chinese for dinner._'"

"Yea, that sounds fine" Meredith said after a minute or two, completely forgetting that her cousin had a half day of school. "I should be done at around four-ish, unless Donnie needs anything else."

"'_It must be fun being a photographer for a newspaper. You get all the good hours_'" Jayde said, causing Meredith to laugh before hanging up the phone. It didn't take her long to get back to the office, where he boss was looking at everything in a skirt like it was a piece of meat.

If it wasn't for her job, she wouldn't put up with his perverted ways. Especially when he started looking at Jayde the same way he looked at the women that he worked with.

Ignoring just about everyone around her, Meredith went into her cubicle and began uploading the pictures she had taken from that day. Most she had emailed to her boss. Others she emailed to her self, wanting to keep them for herself.

Meredith didn't know how long she had sat at her desk looking at the pictures that she had taken of Oliver. By the time she left her own little world, it was time for her to head home. After successfully dodging the unwanted advances of her boss, Meredith was on her way.

Before Meredith knew it, she was back home, kicking off her shiny red heels, walking by Jayde who was doing her homework on the couch and going into her bedroom to change out of her work clothes. Once she was dressed in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and tight, white, long sleeved shirt, Meredith went out and joined Jayde in the living room.

"I already ordered, food should be here in fifteen" Jayde said, not even looking up from her text book as Meredith sat on the couch next to her.

"Sweet deal" Meredith said, turning on the TV and flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch "you almost done?" she asked her cousin.

Jayde just nodded, wrote a few more things done in her notebook before closing her text book and smiling to her cousin. " So you'll never guess what happened today." she said.

"Hmm." Meredith said, placing a finger on her chin "Roy showed up to your school and kissed you?" When Jayde's eyes went wide, Meredith just laughed "I'm kidding I'm kidding." she said before adding "seriously, you know i hate guessing games. You're just gunna have to tell me."

"I'm up for early grad." Jayde said.

Meredith's jaw dropped at the news before pulling her cousin in for a hug. "Oh my god Jay!" she squealed "I'm so proud of you!" she added before letting her go and standing. "Okay this called for some Pinot" she said, causing Jayde to laugh and shake her head.

"Break it out." Jayde said. Meredith nodded and went into the kitchen to grab the bottle of wine and some glasses.

As she was in the kitchen, she heard the door bell ring, and Jayde talking to whomever it was at the door. When she came out of the kitchen, Meredith saw that their food had come. While Jayde started taking the food containers out of the bags they were in, Meredith sat on the couch and started pouring the wine.

"Seriously, Jayde. I'm wicked proud of you. I know your mom and dad would be too" Meredith smiled once they started eating. Jayde gave a small smile as well as she fingered her fathers necklace. As she was lost in thought, Onyx put her front paws on the coffee table and tried to steal some of the Chinese food off of the table. "No, Onyx" Meredith said to the puppy, shooing her off of the table. With sad eyes, she whimpered at Jayde.

Laughing, Jayde picked up a noodle with her chopsticks and held it out for the puppy. "here ya go girl" Jayde said with a smile as Onyx took the noodle.

The two girls sat in the living room, eating and talking about what Jayde wanted to do after she graduated. Just as they finished, there was a knock on the door. As Jayde cleaned up their mess and put their glasses in the sink, Meredith went to answer the door, with Onyx following her.

"Hi" it was Oliver.

"Well you have a lot of nerve showing up here." Meredith said, folding her arms over her chest, Onyx barking in agreement.

"I-" Oliver started to speak, but Meredith interrupted him.

"what are you doing here Ollie?" she asked, putting her leg in front of the door way so that Onyx didn't get out.

"My sister took...she pointed out to me that I have been...distant since i got back and that it would probably be a good idea if I let somebody in." Oliver said, struggling with his words.

"So you thought you would start with me? After what happened last week?" Meredith asked.

"I'm _so _sorry about that Mere." he said, his eyes pleading with her. "I did that to protect you. And then i saw you at the courthouse yesterday, and i saw the look in your eyes..." he paused for a moment. "And i realized how much that hurt you."

Meredith thought about his words for a minute. A part of her wanted to slam the door in his face. But... he was still her best friend. So she moved aside and let him into the apartment.

"thank you." he said, looking around the apartment before he noticed that Onyx seemed to be glaring at him.

"Oh... Oliver's here" came Jayde's voice from the direction of the hall way. "I'm just gunna go... some where that's not here." she said, before grabbing a sweat shirt and heading out the door.

"I'm a jerk, Mere." Oliver began once Jayde was no longer in the apartment "Before the island? I was a jerk. But now I'm just a... I'm just a damaged jerk"

"You were never a jerk to me, Ollie." Meredith said quietly as she leaned against the arm of the couch. "Whats in the bag?" she asked, nodding her head towards the brown paper bag in his hand.

"I thought about many things on the island, but there was one thing that i thought about everyday" he said, Meredith's heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her throat. "I actually dreamed about it" Oliver said with a smile. "And i promised myself that if i ever get a chance to do it again, that I'd do with with you" then Oliver pulled a small tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream out of the bag, her favorite "Eat ice cream" he said, the smile never leaving his face.

Minutes later, Oliver and Meredith were sitting in the living room, eating bowls of ice cream.

"mm, this is as good as i remember" Oliver said. "So my mother wants me to join the company" he said a second later, at Meredith's raised eyebrow he added "yea, she want's me to 'take my rightful place"

Meredith just chuckled as she took another bite of her ice cream. "I can't exactly see you as master of the universe." she said.

Oliver laughed as well before putting his bowl on the table. "You know" he started "after five years, i have plans" he said "i have things that i have to do. And i can't do that if I'm... i don't know..." he trailed off.

"Attending board meetings and stock holder briefings" Meredith filled in for him, Oliver just nodded. "Ollie, you're an adult. And the best part about being an adult? you have the ability to say no to your parents" she said.

"Oh i tried that, i didn't take." he chuckled.

"Well," Meredith thought for a moment. "Then don't tell her, show her. _Be_ the person that you want her and everyone else to see you as." she supplied.

Oliver thought about her words for a minute before nodding. He knew she was right. "I'm sorry, Mere. About what happened last week" he said

"You've apologized already, Ollie." Meredith pointed out. "yea sure i was pissed for a little while. But not because of the...kiss." she still had some difficulty wrapping her head around the fact that Oliver and had kissed her "i was mainly pissed because of how you left." she said.

Oliver kept his head down, not wanting to see the hurt look he knew was in her eyes. "Like i said earlier, Mere, i left to protect you." he said. "But i really... _really _ liked what we were doing yesterday." he added, finally looking in her eyes. As he did, he saw her blue hues sparkling with happiness.

"what were we doing yesterday?" she asked coyly. She wasn't expecting herself to say that. Smiling, Oliver moved closer to her, placing a hand on the back of her head and pulled her to him. Meredith's breath caught in her chest as his lips descended on hers in a soft, sweet kiss.

**-/-**

After Jayde left the apartment, she decided to try and hang out with Thea. But her friend wasn't answering her phone. She was halfway to Thea's house when a text came through. It was Thea, telling Jayde that she was at a friend of hers house 'partying'. Shaking her head Jayde stopped short, trying to figure out what she was going to do next.

The next thing she knew, Jayde was holding her cell phone up to her ear, calling Roy. Over the past few weeks, the duo had become close. Jayde had felt bad for hanging out with Roy more than Thea lately, but Thea had made it clear that partying was more of a priority to her.

Roy had said that he was at his house, hanging out with his friend Sin, but that it was alright for her to swing by and hang out with them. The name had sounded familiar to Jayde, but she shrugged it off and began walking to the house Roy lived in.

In no time at all, Jayde was standing outside of the small house, knocking on the door. Seconds later, a girl with short black hair answered the door, and it made Jayde smile.

"Well no shit" the girl said.

"Been along time, huh, Sin?" Jayde said with a large grin before she hugged the other girl. Once they let go of each other, they both went into the house.

"So i take it you two know each other" Roy stated as he came out of the kitchen.

"Yup!" Jayde smiled, slinging an around around Sin's shoulder. "Sin and i were friends in elementary school, we lived like right down the street from each other" she added before she went and sat on the couch.

"Well then sweet, i don't have to do any introductions" Roy smiled, sitting down on the couch next to her, while Sin sat in the chair.

The trio sat around the apartment, watching movies and having a good time between the three of them. Jayde and Sin were telling stories about their childhood together and Roy had told his side of the story of how he and Jayde had met.

After a few minutes Jayde got really excited about something. "Oh my god guys i totally almost forgot to tell you!" she said happily.

"What's that?" Roy asked with a curious look on his face.

"Are you pregnant? Is it Roy's? Ooooh can i be the godmother?" Sin joked, causing Roy to throw a pillow at her. "What dude those are valid questions." she said, throwing the pillow back at him. Even she could see the looks her friends gave each other, and they way that they acted around each other.

"God, no, Sin. Jeez!" Jayde said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm up for early graduation"! she said happily.

"Jay that friggin great"! Roy said, wrapping his arms around her tightly, causing Jayde to blush.

"holy shit Jayde!" Sin added in happily, jumping on the hugging duo, causing Jayde to laugh.

"Okay, okay get off guys, i can't breathe" she said, and her two friends did as she asked, Roy still keeping his arm around her shoulders.

Jayde, Sin and Roy laughed and joked for a little while after that before Roy heard Jayde's stomach start to growl. "Looks like someone's hungry." he said with a smile as he started to play with the tips of her dark hair.

"I could eat." she shrugged, leaning her head comfortably on his shoulder.

"How about some pizza?" he asked, looking down at her and smiling. Jayde just nodded her head, enjoying the comfort of being close to him.

"Well..." Sin said as she stood up from her chair "looks like you two would like to be alooone, soo... i'll catch ya later" she added. Roy just rolled his eyes and threw another pillow at her. Laughing, Sin said her goodbyes and left.

"Sooo... pizza?" Jayde asked, lifting her head to look at him with hopeful eyes.

"Yep" Roy nodded "lets get you fed, Princess" he added with a chuckle, pulling out his cell phone to order the food.

Once the order was placed and Roy hung up the phone, the two of them sat in silence for a minute or two.

"You know... I'm real proud of you Jay." Roy smiled at her. Jayde smiled back at him and nodded her head.

"Thanks Roy." she said softly, putting her head back on his shoulder. "You know i really like doing this" she added, causing Roy to smile and put his arms around her.

"Yea so do i." he responded.

"You know i-" Jayde began, lifting her head to look at him. But as she did, his lips were on hers. Jayde's eyes widened at first as a slight blush rose to her cheeks. It took a moment for her to respond.

When Roy pulled away, Jayde let out a shaky breath. "wow" she whispered, unable to think of anything else.

"Yea" Roy said, resting his forehead on hers.

The two of them sat like that for a minute, soaking in the moment. Every now and again Roy would kiss her again, and it felt just the same. The butterflies still went wild in her stomach and it still left her breathless.

Before they knew it, there was a knock on the door, their pizza had arrived. "mmm food" Jayde said happily when Roy stood to get the door.

Once the food was paid for and Roy was sitting on the couch next to Jayde, he grabbed a slice of pizza, putting it on a paper plate before handing it to Jayde. Smiling, and making herself comfortable on the couch, Jayde put her legs on Roy's lap, causing him to rest his plate on her legs.

Jayde smiled when Roy put on hand on her thigh and used his other hand to eat with. They sat there, eating and watching TV until the more than half of the pizza was gone.

"I guess you were pretty hungry" Roy said after he put the box in the fridge. Jayde just shrugged.

"I guess i was" she said, lifting her legs off of the couch so that he could sit before putting them back on his lap. Roy put his hands back on her legs, rubbing them absentmindedly every so often.

Jayde and Roy sat like that for a few hours, watching TV and talking about random things. Before she knew it, Jayde was fast asleep on the couch, with Roy following close behind her.

It was after midnight when the sound of Jayde's cell phone caused the two sleeping teens to wake up. Groaning, Jayde grabbed the phone off of the table, seeing that it was Meredith, she answered it.

"Hello?" she said in a groggy, sleep ridden voice.

"'_Jay, it's after midnight, thought you were going to be home by now_'" Meredith said. "'_were you sleeping?_'" she asked after a second, taking in the fact that Jayde sounded like she was half awake.

"Yea, thanks so much for interrupting" Jayde groaned, looking down at Roy who was just starting to wake up.

"'_Well_'" Meredith sighed. "' _Just spend the night there, I'll come and pick you up in the morning, Ollie wants us to go to the ceremony at the applied sciences building tomorrow._'" she added.

"Alright" Jayde sighed, running her fingers through Roy's short hair. "Aren't you doing the photography for that?" she asked.

"'_Yea_'" was Meredith's response. "'_Okay kiddo, get back to sleep, I'll pick you up in the morning and drop you off at home before i head out, okay?_'"

Jayde agreed and hung up the phone. At this point, Roy was awake and sitting up with a stretch. " Hey, how about you take the bed?" he said quietly when he saw Jayde start to stretch out on the couch again.

"No" she said, shaking her head "I'm not taking your bed" she added. Roy just smiled and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Don't worry, I'm not sleeping on the couch" he said as if reading her mind before taking her hand and pulling her with him gently towards his room.

Her heart started to race, sure they had slept next to each other a few times before, but never in his _bed_. Although a part of her mind knew that nothing was going to happen, the other part automatically jumped to all of the possibilities.

"You can borrow something to sleep in if you want to." Roy said as he stripped off his pants and climbed into his bed. Jayde just nodded and grabbed a shirt from his dresser. Letting her change in some form of privacy, Roy rolled over in the bed so that his back was too her. Quickly, Jayde stripped out of her closed and pulled the baggy red t-shirt over her head before sliding into the bed under the covers.

Smiling, Roy rolled over onto his back, letting her rest her head on his chest. When she did, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Seconds later Jayde was asleep again.

**-/-**

At around five o'clock the next morning, there was a knock on the door and Jayde's cell phone was ringing on the night stand. Groaning, Jayde moved from the warmth of Roy's body and answered the phone.

"Hello?" she said groggily as Roy began to stir next to her. When Meredith told her that she was outside, Jayde looked at Roy who was a little more awake than he was a second ago.

"Just tell her to come in, the doors unlocked." he mumbled, putting his head back on the pillow.

Jayde smiled and told Meredith what he said. Just as she did, they heard the door open and close. Quickly, Jayde grabbed her jeans and slipped them on, while still under the blanket. As she went to change out of the shirt, Roy stopped her.

"You can keep it", he said looking at her with tired eyes, obviously he wasn't used to waking up this early. Smiling, Jayde nodded her head as she stood from the bed with a stretch. Quickly, before she could re-think it, Jayde turned and leaned over the bed, giving Roy a small kiss.

"Get some sleep." she said softly before she walked out of the room and into the living room where Meredith was waiting for her with a raised eyebrow. Jayde just shook her head and walked past her.

"So how was your night?" Meredith asked her cousin with a smile once they were in the car.

"It was fine" Jayde said with an eye roll as they drove through the Glades. "How was your night with Ollie" she teased.

"Nothing to interesting. Just ate some ice cream" Meredith said "So i saw you and Roy were sleeping in his bed. And that you're wearing his shit. So did you two... you know?" she asked her cousin suggestively, causing Jayde to groan.

"no nothing like that happened" Jayde said as she chewed on her lip.

"oooooh. So what did happen?" Meredith asked, knowing that her cousin was keeping something from her.

Jayde was silent for a minute before answering "we kissed" she said. Meredith looked at her with wide eyes, knowing that Jayde was starting to get into dangerous territory, going into the same place she herself had been in for years.

"so are you two together now or what?" Meredith asked, hoping that they were just so that her little cousin had less of a chance of getting hurt.

"No" Jayde shook her head. "it was just a little kiss, Mere, it didn't mean anything" Jayde said, looking out the window.

"Jayde" Meredith sighed as she pulled up in front of their apartment building. "I just don't want you to get hurt." she said softly, speaking from experience.

"Mere. I'm not gunna get hurt, because there was nothing there, it was just a friendly kiss." Jayde said, even though everything in her told her that it was much more than that. After giving Meredith a one armed hug, Jayde slid out of the car and went up to the apartment to change. Apart of her not wanting to take off Roy's shirt.

Shaking her head, Jayde got an outfit together before leaving her bedroom to take a shower. Which didn't take long at all, and once she was clean she went back to her room and saw that she had a text from Thea letting her know that they were on their way to pick her up. Jayde knew that 'they' was Thea, Moira and Walter. So, quickly, Jayde dressed in a nice pair of black slacks and a silky black tank top before tying her hair up in a loose ponytail before quickly applying a little bit of make up.

In no time at all, the Queen family had picked her up and they were on their way to the ground-breaking ceremony.

When they got there, Jayde saw that Meredith was already there, snapping pictures as Jayde walked through the crowd of people and standing off to the side as the family took the stage.

"Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming." Walter said as he took his spot behind the podium. "Welcome to the future site of the Robert Queen Memorial Applied Sciences center" he said, as the crows applauded for him. "Now this building that will stand as a monument to the man whose company and vision are his greatest legacies..." Walter trailed off as he was interrupted.

"Whoa whoa." It was Oliver "What about me? Right? I'm a legacy!" he said, as he walked through the crowd placing a hand softly on the small of Meredith's back and giving her a small smile as he walked passed her "Hey! Thanks for warming them up Walt. Alright, some of you may not know me, my name is Oliver queen." some of the people were confused as he spoke. "uh, watch some television, read a newspaper. I'm kinda, famous right now." he chuckled "Mostly though I'm famous because I'm Robert Queens son. Uh but as Walter, whose my new dad." he laughed, clapping his new step father on the back "Sorry. Uh as Walter was saying, I'm not much of a legacy, per se, see i was supposed to come here today, and I'm supposed to take my rightful place at the company, prodigal son returns home and become the heir apparent. But I'm not my father. I'm not the man he was. I'm not half the man he was. I never will be. So please, stop asking me to be." he finished as he stuck the gold encrusted shovel into the ground and walked off stage.

Meredith watched him walk away with a smile on her face, proud that he took a stand. Making sure that nobody noticed her, she slipped away and followed him.

"Ollie?" she said to get his attention, causing him to turn to face her. His body guard not to far behind.

"Hey Mere-Bear" he said with a smile.

Smiling back at him she pulled him in for a hug, breathing in his scent before saying "I'm proud of you Ollie."

Oliver smiled back at her and bent his head. "Thank Mere." he said before they pulled away from each other. "You've always been in my corner, haven't you?" he asked, putting an arm around her shoulders as they walked to find a place to sit. Meredith knew that she should probably get back to the office to upload and edit the pictures she had taken that day, but at this point she didn't care. The pictures weren't going anywhere.

"Always have been, always will be" she responded with a smile as she rested her head on his shoulder while they walked.

They walked in silence for a little bit, Dig following not to far behind them. After a minute or two, they found a bench and sat down. "So Mere, i was thinking..." Oliver began after moment or two. "Would you like to go out tonight? Grab some dinner, something like that."

Meredith couldn't believe her ears. Sure her and Oliver had gone out together before, but since he had been back, they rarely had any time for just the two of them. Without even a second though, Meredith nodded her head 'yes' before she noticed the time.

"Gimme a call later, okay? I need to get back to work" Meredith said, kissing his cheek softly before she rushed to her car.

**-/-**

Later than night, Jayde was doing Meredith's hair and makeup. She had chosen a deep purple, off the shoulder dress that came down to just above her knees and hugged her every curve.

"So are you sure that this isn't a date?" Jayde asked as she finished curling her cousins hair and clipping it to the side with a sparkly silver hair clip.

"Yes, Jay, for the millionth time. We're just going out to dinner. Oliver and I haven't had much time to hang out one on one since he got back" Meredith said as she applied a coat of lip gloss.

"Okay so tell me again how he asked you" Jayde said, sitting on the bed. She had changed out of the clothes she had worn to the ceremony and was wearing a pair of tight black yoga pants and Roy's t-shirt.

Meredith just sighed "His exact words were 'Would you like to go out tonight? Grab some dinner' so we're going out tonight for dinner" she said, pulling on her black peep-toe heels.

Jayde said nodded her head with a short "Mmh-hmm" before leaving the room.

Meredith just looked at herself in the mirror going over the words that Oliver had said. Wondering if maybe, tonight was actually a date. If it was finally happening. Butterflies seemed to erupt in her stomach when he cell phone rang. Answering it, Oliver told her that he would be at her apartment in a few minutes.

Letting out a bated breath, Meredith stood from her seat and walked out to the living room, where Jayde was playing on the floor with Onyx. As she waited, Meredith paced the floor, her heels clicking against the hard wood with every step.

Finally, when the door bell rang, the butterflies in her stomach erupted yet again. "Don't stay up to late" was all she said to Jayde before she went to the door and greeted Oliver.

Minutes later, they were walking down the street, Dig doing his job and following not to far behind them. "So where are you taking me?" Meredith said with a smile, slipping an arm through Olivers.

"How do you feel about Italian?" Oliver responded.

"Love it" Meredith nodded, causing Oliver to laugh.

It didn't take them long to reach a small, little known Italian restaurant a few blocks away from Meredith's apartment. Once they were seated and were handed their menu's Meredith scanned over her food choices.

"Hmmm, I'll have the penne with marinara, Parmesan cheese on the side. Aaand a glass of red wine please" Meredith said to the waitress, whose eyes never left Oliver.

"I'll have the same" was all Oliver said as he closed the menu and handed it to the waitress. After a second more of staring at Oliver, the waitress jotted down their orders and left the table.

"It's been awhile since we've been able to do this" Oliver smiled at Meredith as their drinks came.

"Do what?" she asked, taking a sip of the wine.

"be together, have dinner. Just me and you" Oliver said as he fiddled with the silverware on the table.

Meredith thought about his words, her head telling her that they were there just as friends, but her heart wanted to to be more. "Yea, it seems like we never get time for just me and you since you've been home" she nodded.

"Look, Mere, i hope you didn't get the wrong idea about tonight..." Oliver trailed off, trying to tell her that them going to dinner wasn't a date. It was just two friends, enjoying a meal together.

"No" Meredith shook her head. "Ollie, seriously, i didn't. Its fine" she said. But Oliver could hear the disappointment in her voice.

Once their meal came, the two of them talked about random things that had happened over the years. Meredith told Oliver about Jayde's mothers murder and how the younger girl came to live with her. Among other things that she had been doing over the past five years while he was...away.

Almost a half an hour later, they were walking back to Meredith's apartment. When they passed by an alley, Meredith heard a soft meowing noise, and the sound of a trashcan being knocked over. Curious, she walked into the alley to see what had made the noise.

"Mere, what are you doing?" Oliver said, following behind her.

"Ms. Logan i highly advise against this" Dig said as he came up next to them.

"Guys it's all good" Meredith said from her crouching position from behind the knocked over trashcan. When she stood, she had an orange tabby secured in her arms.

"Okay, so it was a cat. Put it back so we can get you home." Oliver said, putting his hand out for her.

Meredith just shook her head, scratching the top of the cats head. "Nope, Jager's coming home with me." she said, walking past Oliver.

"Jager?"

* * *

**AN: I hope you all enjoyed chapter 6! I feel like it was mostly filler, but still lots and lots of cute fluffy awesomeness. Also I would like to remind you guys that Roy and Jayde are NOT together, but I have really really big plans to get them together, but it wont be for a while. Also, even though Meredith and Oliver's relationship has pretty much taken the forefront of this story, it IS mostly a Roy/OC story, but a majority of the scenes I want to use from the show work better with Meredith there. aaaanyways, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited and followed. Your reviews make me smile. :) Also huge thanks to my good friend Miss E Charlotte, for letting me use Meredith. As always, Leave Love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	7. Chapter 7

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Seven -**

When Jayde woke up the next morning, there was a weight on her stomach. Looking over with heavily lidded eyes, she saw Onyx snoozing away on the bed next to her. With confusion, she opened her eyes and looked to see an adult orange cat sleeping peacefully on top of her.

Gently, she pushed the cat off of her before picking up a still sleeping Onyx and walked out into the kitchen.

"Mere!" she called as the cat trotted in front of her, flicking its tail happily. "what the hell is that thing?" Jayde asked after she put Onyx on the floor and began getting breakfast ready for her puppy.

"Its a cat, Jay," Meredith said with a roll of her eyes as she continued to cook.

"I get that, Meredith." Jayde said, rolling her eyes as well "what i dont get is..." but she stopped short what she saw what her cousin was cooking. The only time either one of them cooked french toast with chocolate chips and bananas was when they had a bad date. " so i take it the date didn't go as well as planned" Jayde stated, scooping some dog food into Onyx's dish and shooing away the cat who was trying to eat it.

"What date" Meredith scoffed.

"oooh that bad huh?" Jayde asked, as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"It was just a chance for me and him to hang out, just the two of us" Meredith said as she turned down the heat on the stove and put the food onto two separate plates, one for herself and the other for Jayde. "I mean, i guess it makes sense. But i seriously should have seen it coming, Ollie will never see me like _that_" she added, stabbing the french toast with a fork violently before taking a bite as she ignored her phone.

"so explain the cat" Jayde said as she ate the food on her plate.

"I don't know" Meredith shrugged "after the non-date, we were on our way back here and i found him. His name is Jager."

"Great you named it, now we have to keep it." Jayde laughed, looking at her dog playing with the cat.

"Onyx seems to like him" Meredith shrugged. Jayde just nodded in agreement. At least this way, Onyx had someone to keep her company when the two of them weren't home.

After they were done eating, Meredith retreated to her bedroom to finish getting ready for work. Minutes later, she was back in the kitchen, pouring what was left of the coffee into her travel mug before she went into the living room and saw Jayde playing with Jager and Onyx.

"I'm gunna head out." Meredith announced.

"Alrighty. I'm prolly gunna go over to Thea's later, and i can pick up some things for Jager on my way home if you want. I need to get Onyx some more food anyways." Jayde responded, not looking up at her cousin.

"Sounds good to me." Meredith said before leaving.

As soon as Meredith left, Jayde played with Jager and Onyx for a little while longer before going into her bedroom to get changed.

While she looked for something to wear, she texted back and forth with Thea and Roy. Even though she really wanted to spend more time with Roy, Jayde had already promised Thea that she was going to come over and hang out. And that's what she planned on doing.

Once dressed in a black and white t-shirt and a pair of light blue skinny jeans, Jayde pulled on a pair of black sneakers before she walked back out into the living room.

After a moment or two of thought as she watched Onyx and Jager play, Jayde decided to leave Onyx outside of her crate for the day. Onyx was normally very good when home alone, so Jayde thought that locking her up was unnecessary. With one last check in the mirror, Jayde left the apartment.

**-/-**

Meredith made it to work a half an hour early. After walking through the lobby and saying hi to some of her co-workers, Meredith made a bee-line for her desk where she started editing some of the more recent pictures she had taken. There was only one other photographer for the paper, and the girl could barely work her camera.

The only reason why Donnie had hired the girl, Katie, was because she looked good in a tight dress. Not because she could take a decent picture. It seemed as if any girl who has ever taken a picture thought that they were a photographer. Meredith, however, had been taking pictures ever since she was five years old, and was damn good at her job.

Meredith was half way done with the edits when she smelled the strong scent of flowery perfume.

"What do you want Katie" she groaned, not bothering looking up from what she was doing.

"Nothing, just wanted to see what you were doing Mere-Mere." the girl said, twirling her blonde hair around her finger as she sat on Meredith's desk.

"I'm doing my job, Katie. All of these pictures need to edited and sent into Donnie in a little under an hour." Meredith said "I don't have time to socialize" she added.

Katie jumped off of the desk and walked away with a huff. Rolling her eyes, Meredith continued to work.

Minutes later, she sensed yet another presence standing to the side of her desk. Turning she saw that it was her boss, Donnie.

"Meredith, i thought i told you to have those pictures to me first thing this morning" He said.

Sighing, Meredith stopped what she was doing and turned to face her boss. "They're not ready yet" she said. "And you told me to have them ready by eight. It's not even 7 yet." Meredith pointed out.

Donnie looked down at her for a moment before checking his watch and clearing his throat. "Well, then in that case... You have an hour" he said before walking away.

With a roll of her eyes, Meredith turned back around and went back to what she was doing.

As she went through the pictures, another text came in, causing Meredith's pocket to vibrate. Stopping what she was doing for a second, Meredith pulled her phone out of her pocket. it was from Oliver. Groaning she finally relented and texted him back "'_I'm at work_'" was all she said, hoping that he wouldn't text her again for the rest of the day.

She had been avoiding his texts since last night. Hadn't answered his calls. Meredith was still reeling from their... non-date the night before. She didn't really know how to approach the situation. So Meredith threw herself into work, just as she did whenever she needed to avoid the drama in her life. Especially when it came to Oliver Queen.

Back in their early college days, whenever Oliver had a new girlfriend, or when being around him became too much, Meredith would do nothing but study and focus on her classes. Practically ignoring anyone except for her teachers and her little cousin Jayde.

After Oliver's disappearance and the murder of Jayde's mother, Meredith started working more and more. Thankfully that was around the time that Jayde started training at the dojo.

The phone didn't buzz again, until she had already emailed the pictures to Donnie. Slightly more irritated, Meredith grabbed the phone off of her desk and when she saw that it was from Oliver, she groaned and shut off her phone.

With her phone back in her purse, Meredith started going through more of her pictures, editing some for another spread she was doing for the paper. Meredith didn't take her usual lunch break, because she didn't feel the need to, and she worked throughout the day.

**-/-**

While Jayde walked to Thea's house, she texted back and forth with Roy and Sin. After she had gone home from spending the night with Roy, one of the first things she did was call Sin from the comfort of her bed, telling her old friend about the kiss.

Sin was supportive, and could tell how much Jayde felt for Roy, but never brought it up. Which Jayde was thankful for, she didn't feel like answering many questions, or making inept plans to deal with her feelings. She just wanted to leave it as it was, and if something were to happen, then she would deal with it then. If she had told Thea about it, then she would have blown everything out of proportion. So to avoid that, Jayde just kept her best friend in the dark about it. Not even telling her about Roy at all.

Forty minutes later, Jayde was walking up to the Queen's mansion. After the last time she had come to hang out with Thea, Jayde decided to ring the door bell and wait for someone to let her in.

When the door opened to reveal Oliver, Jayde resisted the urge to smack him. "hey, Jay. Haven't seen you around." he said with a smile, letting her into the house.

Stepping through the door way, Jayde just glanced at him "Yea I've been pretty busy lately" she said vaguely. "Is Thea up in her room?" she asked a second later.

"Yea." was all he said before Jayde turned to head up the stairs. "Wait, Jay" Oliver said, stopping the girl short. "Is Mere okay? She hasn't talked to me all day" he asked.

Jayde just rolled her eyes. "Other than you being an ass? Yea she's good" Jayde said, leaving it at that as she walked up to Thea's room, leaving a confused Oliver behind.

"Thea!" Jayde called as she entered the room, where she saw her friend sitting at her desk and listening to music.

"Oh, hey Jayde." Thea smiled, pulling her head phones out of her ears. "i almost forgot you were coming by today." she added.

Smiling, Jayde sat on the couch as Thea stood from her seat at the desk and sat on the couch next to her friend. "i figured." Jayde chuckled.

For a few hours the two teens sat there, talking about boys, parties and school. "You are _so _lucky you don;t have to actually be in school anymore." Thea said as she took a sip from her water bottle.

"I don't know" Jayde shrugged. "i mean i'm all for not being in school. But at the same time i get so _bored_ during the day while everyone is at school" it wasn't a complete lie, Jayde did get bored during the day. But recently she'd been hanging out with Sin and Roy alot more.

"Well, how about tonight you come shopping with me and Margo?" Thea asked, causing Jayde to roll her eyes.

"Nah i'm good." she said. Margo was one of Thea's drug-friends, and every time she saw Jayde, she acted like Jayde belonged in the dort or something. Suffice to say, the two girls didn't get along. "Besides, Meredith and i were gunna go catch a movie tonight." she lied.

"So when are you graduating?" Thea asked after a second or two.

"Next month i think, i just have to finish up this one essay then i have all of my credits and graduations next month. Your coming right?" Jayde asked.

"Of course i am!" Thea said happily, hugging her friend.

**-/-**

It was just before ten o'clock at night when Jayde was pulling on her leather outfit, and smearing grease paint over her eyes. Sometimes she felt as if the paint wasn't enough when it came to hiding her identity, but nobody had recognized her yet, so she didn't worry about it.

Normally Jayde would go after small time criminals, muggers, pimp and the like, but tonight was different. A man named James Holder had been putting defective fire alarms and extinguishers in the buildings he owned in the Glades, which ended up killing a lot of people. Some of which were family friends of Jayde.

This man needed to be taken care of. After making sure that he knives were clipped into her belt and saying goodbye to Meredith, Jayde turned off her bedroom light and climbed out of her window, just like she did every other time.

Using the shadows of buildings and houses to hide her, Jayde made it to the rooftop of James Holders penthouse.

"Plus, now that this law suits been settled, we can focus our attention on UNIDAC Industries." she heard him say, as he hung up the phone, Jayde threw one of her ring daggers at him, just narrowly missing his face.

Just as she did, an arrow whipped through the air, breaking the bottle that was in his hands. "I have armed security inside. All i have to do is call out." holder said.

"Go ahead. They can't hear you" said the man in a green hood as he tossed two guns to the ground. Jayde had wondered why there was a lack of security. Now it made sense.

"What do you want?" Holder yelled. Jayde took this as her opportunity to step out of her hiding place

"How many people died in those fires, Holder?" she asked, making her presence known, Just as she did, the man in the green hood turned his bow on her, causing her to hold up her hands.

"No worries, dude, I'm here for this asshole. I'm not a threat to you." she said. The man seemed to nod before turning his bow back to Holder.

"The courts say you don't owe your victims anything. I disagree. James Holder you..." but he was cut off by bullets being fired from a distance away. Two being lodged in James Holders heart.

Quickly, Jayde took cover, as did the man in the green hood. More shots were fired, and Jayde's heart beat faster than ever. This was the most action she had seen in a very long time. Now more than ever she wished that she had more training with projectile weapons, instead of her ring daggers.

As the gun shots seemed to die down, Jayde managed to sneak away before the hooded man could question her. But not before realizing that she was hit.

Almost a half an hour later, Jayde was stumbling in through her bedroom window, falling on her bed.

"Mere!" she called out. Not long before she had gotten home, Jayde started getting dizzy, she knew that somehow she had been poisoned. No doubt the bullet that had hit her had been laced with it.

Her vision was starting to get blurry, but she could see Meredith rushing into the room and turning on the light. "Get the herbs" was all Jayde needed to say. Quickly, Meredith went to Jayde's vanity and grabbed a pouch from there. The next thing Jayde knew, a leafy substance was being forced into her mouth, lazily she chewed before she felt liquid being poured down her throat to wash it all down before she passed out.

* * *

**AN: so lots of crazy stuff happened in this chapter! what do you guys think? will Jay be okay? Anyways I'd like to thank every one for their support, it makes me smile!**

**Also I would like to point out something. For those of you who know about comics and stuff, Jayde's family in Africa (whom she lives with in Miss E Charlottes story 'Love Don't Die') are Garfield Logan and his parents. For those of you who don't know who that is, he also goes by Beast Boy, look him up. Anyways i figured i would give you all that little bit of background info :) As always, leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	8. Chapter 8

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Eight-**

When Jayde woke up the next morning, there was a sharp pain in her side and her leather vest had been taken off and put back in the safe. Groaing, Jayde sat up, moved the blankets off of her and looked down, wincing when she saw the guaze that covered the bullet wound.

Gently, as not to hurt herself further, Jayde got out of bed and changed into a tight midnight blue t-shirt, dark blue skinny jeans and her black converse high tops. Once she was dressed, Jayde went out to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, almost tripping over Jager on the way.

"Mere, you're damn cat's gunna kill me" she groaned at her cousin. As she did she heard a bark and smiled as Onyx ran up to her. As slowly as she could, Jayde bent down and picked up her puppy, who proceeded to lick her face. "I know, baby girl, mommy's all better now." Jayde winced as Onyx wiggled unknowingly against the gunshot wound.

As she walked into kitchen, Meredith already had a cup of coffee and a bottle of advil waiting for her. After putting Onyx back on the floor to play with Jager, Jayde sat down and took both from her cousin graciously.

"ugh. Last night suuucked" Jayde said after she chased down two of the pills with a large gulp of coffee.

"So what happened?" Meredith said, sitting across the table from her cousin, Jager jumping into her lap.

"Well, the Hood guy was there, almost shot me. But when he realized we were there for the same reason, he didn't take the shot. I don't know the rest kind of happened really fast. The mark is dead though. Double tap to the heart." Jayde said as Onyx curled up at her feet on the floor.

"was it the hood guy?" Meredith asked as she ran her fingers through Jager's orange fur. Even though Oliver told her it wasn't him, that she didn't see the things he did when they had gotten kidnapped, in the back of Meredith's mind, she knew Oliver's secret.

"No" Jayde shook her head, taking another sip of coffee. "There was another guy, posted up on the next rooftop over or something. He got Holder." she said.

The two cousins sat in silence for a moment before Meredith's cell phone beeped with a new text. Checking the phone, Meredith let a small smile form on her face when she saw who it was from.

"I know that look. What's Oliver want?" Jayde asked.

Meredith took a second to text Oliver back before responding to the younger girl "Seems Thea got herself arrested. Her and a few friends broke into a store and tried on some dresses." she said.

"So why is he telling you that?" Jayde asked, picking Onyx up now that the pain in her side was gone for the time being. "i thought you weren't talking to him" she added.

"he just wanted to make sure you weren't with her." Meredith said before adding " and we made up last night" she shrugged.

**-**_** Flashback **_**-**

_As soon as Meredith got out of work, she turned on her phone adn saw that she had a bunch of missed calls and texts from Oliver. Most of which were him asking her if she was mad at him, some asking her to meet up with him after work. Sighing, Meredith quickly sent him a text back that told him to meet her at the Big Belly Burger that was just around the corner from her office. _

_ Waiting in her car for a reply, Meredith did anything she could to distract her. Anything from listening to music to fixing her makeup. Finally when Oliver texted her that he was five minutes away, she let out a small sigh and drove around the corner before parking in front of the burger place._

_ Sure enough, Meredith saw Oliver and Dig pull up not to far from where she parked. Letting out a breath, Meredith got out of the car and walked over to them. _

_ "Hey Ollie." she said with a smile "Hi Dig" she said to the body-guard, who nodded._

_ "Hey Mere" Oliver said with a smile, pulling her in for a hug. "Let's go get something to eat, huh?" he said, keeping an arm around her as the three of them went inside. _

_ After they had ordered, and were seated waiting for their food to be ready, Meredith sighed._

_ "Mere... are you mad at me?" Oliver asked, looking at her sadly. "I mean, you've been avoiding my calls and texts all day today" he added._

_ "Ollie, i had a deadline. I'm sorry i didn't call you back." She said, and a part of her was. But another part of her wanted to smack him and walk away._

_ "Is it...about last night?" he asked, somehow knowing why she had been upset. "because... Mere, you know i..." he paused with a sigh. "I'm just not... ready for anything" was his excuse._

_ Meredith didn't know the reason why he had been keeping everyone at arms length since he had been home, she just knew that he was._

_ "No, Ollie, I'm sorry." she said a minute later. "I shouldn't have assumed that it was a... you know..." she trailed off._

_ "A date?" Oliver finished for her, causing her to smile. _

_ "Yea one of those" she giggled. _

_ Even though they didn't talk about it much, just being near him made her feel better. Less mad at him. A few minutes later, their food was ready, adn Oliver got up to get it for them._

_ "You know, Mere if i had known that you had wanted it to be..." Oliver started to say when he sat back down, but Meredith cut him off._

_ "Seriously Ollie, it's fine. I was overreacting." she said with a shrug. "not like i'm your type anyways" she added under her breath._

_ "You could be" Oliver said. Meredith didn't know that he heard her, so she was shocked at his response._

**- **_**End Flashback**_** -**

"Wow" Jayde said, "i didn't expect you to give in that easily" she joked. Jayde knew that when it came to Oliver Queen, Meredith couldn't stay mad for more than a day or two.

"yea well..." Meredith trailed off with a shrug. "Anyways, I'm taking the day off today. So we get to hang out!" Meredith said with a smile.

"Mere, you didn't have to do that. I'm fine" Jayde said, standing from the table to go into the living room.

"yea well, too late. I'm staying home. We're going to hang out, talk about boys and go out for lunch" Meredith smiled as she followed behind her cousin.

Jayde knew that she had no choice in the matter, not that she minded. Even when they were kids, Jayde and Meredith had always been close despite the ten year age difference.

For the rest of the morning, they watched daytime television and talked about boys and other things. Meredith's latest favorite boy related topic was of course addressed, Roy Harper. When mentioned, Jayde denied her feelings for him, something that both girls had been used to.

At around noon, both girls decided to go out for lunch. Even though she had burgers with Ollie the night before, Meredith went back to Big Belly Burger. Mainly because that's what Jayde wanted to eat.

After their food was ordered, and they were halfway through with their meal, Oliver texted Meredith an address, telling her to meet him there.

Glancing at Jayde, Meredith wanted to tell him that she was busy with her cousin that day. But Jayde gave her a look saying that it was okay. So after she sent the text, Meredith and Jayde threw away their trash and walked to the address Oliver had sent her.

When they got to the building and saw Oliver, Dig and Tommy standing out front, Meredith couldn't say she was surprised at the fact that they were outside of Robert Queen's old factory.

"Hey it's Mere and Jay!" Tommy said happily, walking over to give both of the girls a hug.

"Don't touch me, Merlyn," Jayde said when he moved in to hug her "i don't know where those hands have been" she added with a smile before giving him the hug he wanted. Jayde wasn't naive to the fact that Tommy had sex with pretty much anything that moved, and she didn't miss a beat when it came to joking with him about it.

As soon as they came over to Oliver and both girls hugged him, Oliver turned and opened the doors to the factory, letting them all inside.

"So what do you think?" Oliver asked as they all looked around. "Great spot for a night club or what?" he added. Jayde just nodded and started wandering around the abandoned building.

"Sweet," Tommy started "Although i gotta tell you, man, if you're thinking about calling it Queen's... i don't think you're gunna get the clientele that you were looking for" he said, causing Meredith chuckle, and Jayde to cause a loud laugh to echo through the building.

"Great acoustics" Jayde said from the platform she had climbed up on. Meredith didn't even bother to tell Jayde to get down. Not like she would listen.

"Private office" Oliver said, pointing to a room in the far back.

"For the private one-on-one meetings, i would imagine" Tommy said with a smirk.

To which Oliver responded "Hopefully the occasional two-on-one meeting" he said. His words leaving a sting in Meredith's heart.

"You guys are pigs" she quickly recovered.

"So remind me why you're friends with them again" Jayde asked after she had climbed off of the platform and walked back over to them, causing Tommy to laugh.

"Man, are you sure about this?" he asked his friend. "It's not like you really have experience in running a...well, running anything." he said before adding "how about, tomorrow night the three of us, we go and scope out the competition. There's a new club opening downtown."

"Poison?" Jayde and Meredith asked together, Tommy just nodded at their question.

"Max Fuller owns it" Tommy said.

"Max Fuller?" Oliver asked, causing Meredith to shiver. Neither of them had the best track record when it came to Max Fuller.

"Ugh that guys such a creep" Meredith said as she pulled a sour face.

"Mm-hmm" Tommy nodded.

"I slept with his fiancee" Oliver pointed out.

"Oh yea, i remember that. You were screwing her while Max was hitting on me" Meredith added.

"Yea that was before the wedding, though" Tommy had to point out, causing Meredith to roll her eyes.

"Tommy, it was at the rehearsal dinner" Meredith said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Merlyn does have a point. It was at the rehearsal dinner, therefore before the wedding" Jayde advocated as she inspected her nails.

"Jay, don't help" Meredith told her cousin with a roll of her eyes.

"Well its true" Jayde shrugged.

"Besides, who stays mad at a castaway?" Tommy asked, interrupted the girls. Suddenly his phone rang. Checking it before putting it back in his pocket Tommy said "Ah, dammit i got to roll. Anyway, I'll see you guys later. Good place" he told Oliver as he started walking out of the building.

"So... what do you think?" Oliver asked his body guard as he put an arm around Meredith's shoulders and holding her close.

"well, i'm here to provide security, sir, not a commentary." Dig responded.

"Oh come on, Dig." Jayde chuckled.

"Yea come on, man, do me a favor. Speak freely please" Oliver said with a smile.

"Well this is the Glades, right?" Dig asked, Jayde just nodded. "Your rich white friends wouldn't come to this neighborhood on a bet" Dig pointed out.

"I resent that. Mere and I are Oliver's friends, and we practically grew up here" Jayde joked.

"Plus, i am Oliver Queen, right? People would stand in line for three hours if i opened a club." he pointed out.

"Yet another perk of being back from the dead." Meredith smiled, looking up at Oliver from her place under his arm.

"And no one who actually lives in the Glades would see a penny of those cover charges." Dig said.

"So we make it a successful business." Oliver shrugged "We gentrify the neighborhood"

"I was wondering when we would get to that" Dig nodded "The white knight swooping in to save the disenfranchised. And all by his lonesome with no help from anybody."

"Not true." Jayde put in. "I'm going to be graduating next month. And i'm going to be looking for a job" she smiled.

"See?" Oliver said "You don't think very much of me, do you?" he asked.

"No, sir, actually i have a very high regard for how perceptive you are." Dig said.

After they left the building, Jayde felt some sense of accomplishment. And she couldn't help but notice the small smile on both Oliver and Meredith's faces.

**-/-**

The next night, after Jayde had helped her get ready, Meredith was standing outside of Max Fullers club with Oliver, Tommy and Dig. She was chewing on her lip as the four of them waited in line.

"Hahaha. Oh, my, this is going to be killer" Tommy said happily.

"If Max Fuller see's me here, the i agree" Oliver said with a laugh, causing Meredith to grunt in agreement.

"God, I can't believe i let you talk me into coming here, Merlyn." she said, tucking a strand of hair behind he ear.

"Ah, if you want to run a business, you've got to take a few risks" Tommy pointed out as they approached the bouncer, who let them past the rope.

"what would you know about running a business, Tommy" Meredith said.

"Mr. Queen" Dig called out from behind them after the bouncer wouldn't let him in.

"Oh!" Oliver said, turning around to look at Dig. "I have never seen this man before in my life" he told the bouncer. "Ever" he added before putting an arm around Meredith.

"That was so not nice Ollie" Meredith said with a roll of her eyes.

Tommy tried to get the bouncer to let Dig in, but gave up when it didn't seem to work. As they walked over to the bar, Meredith was surprised to see Laurel standing there. "Oh wow!" Tommy said to the other woman "Doesn't you going out and having fun violate some kind of law, you know like the ones that are carved on a stone tablet?" he asked her.

Meredith laughed lightly at his statement. It's not like she hated Laurel, but they weren't best friends either.

"That's cute, Tommy, thanks." Laurel said as she turned to face them "I can see you two dragged Meredith out to put up with your old hunting patterns" she responded.

"yea these two used to kidnap me a lot back in the day" Meredith joked with a smile.

"Just seeing what passes for fun in Starling City after five years." Oliver shrugged.

"Ah. Well, I'm sure you'll find that it just hasn't been the same without you." Laurel said sarcastically. In Meredith's mind, however, it was true. Meredith hadn't gone out to clubs and bars like the one they were in since Oliver's disappearance. It just wasn't the same.

"Big brother!" came a voice from behind them. Next thing the group knew, an extremely drunk Thea Queen came up to them. "Oh i am _soo_ wasted right now." Thea said before putting a hand on her brothers arm "There is...there is two of you." she added, causing Meredith to roll her eyes. Thea was Jayde's best friend, yet the two girls couldn't be more different.

"I thought you were grounded?" Oliver asked his sister.

"I am. And thank you..." Thea said drunkenly "Thank you for that, by the way."

"You're done for the night" Oliver said to her. But his sister wasn't listening. Knowing that the conversation may take awhile, Meredith moved past Oliver and ordered a martini and watched the exchange.

"Oh, what are you going to do? Tell mom?" was Thea's response. That made Meredith chuckle to herself a little. Meredith wouldn't say she was a good parental figure, when her and Jayde started living together Meredith never treated her cousin any different. When Oliver was presumed dead, Moira Queen pretty much let Thea do whatever it was she wanted, with no repercussions.

"Thea! You're hanging with the wrong people" Oliver said sternly.

"Oh, you're one to talk" Thea scoffed. "How much do you know about your so-called friends over there?" she asked her brother, pointing towards Tommy and Laurel, who started looking uncomfortable.

"Oh, Thea, maybe you should..." Tommy tried to get Thea to stop talking, but the drunken teen wasn't listening.

"Tommy..." She said "I think you BFF has a right to know"

"Thea let's go" Oliver told his sister, but she still wasn't listening.

"Well, I guess not even Meredith never told you that Tommy and Laurel have been screwing since you've been gone" Thea said, "but maybe that doesn't bother you, considering the way you've been looking at Mere since you've been back" she added, causing Meredith to almost choke on her drink.

"Don't bring me into this shit fest." Meredith mumbled into her glass.

"Look, man, i..." Tommy tried to defend himself.

"Tommy...It's ok" Oliver said before he turned back to his sister. "You and me, we're done for the night" he added, gripping her arm.

"Take you hands off of me." Thea said, breaking out of her brothers hold. "You're not my father. And you're barely my brother." she added as she walked passed him.

Oliver turned to talk to his friends, when a voice off to the side made him stop, and made Meredith shiver. "Well...look at this. Oliver Queen."

"Max Fuller" Oliver said with a smile "How you been?" he asked.

"Happy you drowned" Fuller said, folding his arms over his chest as he looked over at Meredith. "Hey there Merrie" he said to her, sending her a flirty wink that made her skin crawl.

"Get bent, Fuller" she said. It was no secret that she hated the man.

Second later, Oliver went into one of the back rooms, followed by Fuller and his bodyguards. Meredith didn't know exactly what was going on in the room, but she knew it wasn't good when she saw Tommy running behind the curtain, telling the bodyguards to let Oliver go.

Quietly Meredith went up to the curtain and saw the three bodyguards pounding on Oliver and Tommy with Max watching the scene, directly in front of the curtain. Gritting her teeth, Meredith kicked out his legs from behind the curtain, as he went down, she hit certain pressure points in his back, effectively putting him on the ground.

" So is this over Fuller? Or are you going to have your boys pound on me next?" Meredith asked, cracking her knuckles. Normally, she wouldn't use any of the things that Jayde had taught her on anyone other than the criminals they took down, but Max Fuller became the exception.

"You three consider yourselves banned for life!" Fuller said as his body guards helped him up. "Get the hell out of my place!" he shouted,

"Your club sucks anyways" Meredith scoffed as they left. "You guys okay?" she asked her two friends.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Tommy responded.

Meredith just shrugged and looked down as they walked through the club. "After Jayde's mom was murdered, we both decided to take up self-defense classes" she explained. It wasn't a complete lie.

"Mere... what Thea said..." Oliver started to say before Meredith cut him off.

"Ollie, it's fine... it doesn't matter" she said.

After they left the club, Meredith, Oliver, Tommy and Dig went to Big Belly Burger to grab something to eat along with some ice for Tommy and Oliver's injuries.

"Why don't you guys take a seat and I will grab a couple of burgers and some ice for those faces." Dig said as he waved at Carla, one of the girls that worked there. Meredith only knew her name because her and Jayde had come to eat at the burger place very often.

"The girls pretty cute" Tommy said, looking at Carla. Meredith just smacked his arm.

"That's my sister-in-law" Dig pointed out.

"Who I will never speak to or...look at. Ever." Tommy trailed off as he turned to find a seat.

"Smooth, Merlyn" Meredith chuckled, waving at Carla.

"She's not wearing a wedding ring. Brother out of the picture?" Oliver asked, causing Meredith to shift uncomfortably.

"Yea you could say that" Dig said before walking over to Carla.

"Come on, Ollie, let's go sit" Meredith said, grabbing his hand and leading him over to the booth where Tommy was sitting.

"Look, man...about Laurel." Tommy said when they sat down. Oliver and Meredith sitting on one side of the table with his arm around her and Tommy on the other side. "I was going to tell you. I was just trying to figure out the right way" he added. "And I told Meredith to keep it quiet until i figured it out"

"the right way to tell somebody that you slept with their girlfriend, after they went missing and were presumed dead...What, there's no greeting card for that?" Oliver asked, causing all three of them to chuckle.

"Look...it was wrong and i'm sorry." Tommy said.

"Tommy, i was dead" Oliver pointed out while Meredith rested her head on his shoulder.

"No, man, you were with Laurel. And whether you were dead, or as it turns out, alive on a deserted island, you are my friend. And being with Laurel violated that friendship in about fifty different ways." Tommy said, causing Meredith to scrunch her nose.

"Tommy, i really _don't_ need to know about this" she groaned.

"Thank you, Tommy, but it's ok" Oliver confirmed.

"You're being really chill about this. I..." Tommy started, but was interrupted by Oliver's cellphone ringing.

"Hello?" Oliver said, answering his phone, then he started speaking Russian, causing both Meredith and Tommy to look at each other, slightly confused. "Russian model calling me. Can we...can i have a minute, please?" he asked, causing Meredith to move away from him slightly with a slight pain in her heart.

"I can see now why you were able to be so chill. Need a ride home Mere?" he asked her, numbly, Meredith nodded her head and left with Tommy.

**-/-**

That night, Jayde was alone in the apartment, getting ready for bed. Meredith had texted her a few minutes before, telling her that she was one her way home. As she tied her hair up in a messy bun, Jayde walked into her bedroom. Only she wasn't alone.

The lights were off, but she could clearly see the silhouette of a man. Heart pounding in her chest, Jayde grabbed one of the knives she had hidden on the dresser near the door.

"Who are you?" she asked, preparing to strike if the man made any threatening movements.

Slowly, he lifted up his arms, and that's when Jayde saw the bow that he was holding. Realizing that it was the green hooded man from the night before, Jayde put her knife back.

"I need your help." he said.

"I'm listening." Jayde replied, staying where she stood.

"Tomorrow night, a man named Deadshot will be attacking the Unidac shareholders auction. Interpol calls him Deadshot because he never misses. I know what you do, and we need to stop him" the hooded man said.

"Dude, i take down muggers and pimps. Sometimes the occasional rapist. This is waaay above my pay grade." she said before adding "but I'm in"

* * *

**AN: so now you guys know that little miss Mere can kick some booty! lol also you guys will be able to see Jay working withe the Hood and stuff. sooo yea some pretty exciting stuff coming up guys! also i'd like to thank everyone for reading and reviewing, following and favoriting all that good stuff. And a big thanks to my good friend Miss E Charlotte for letting me use her OC, Meredith! As Always leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0( **


	9. Chapter 9

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Nine -**

The next night was the Unidac Shareholders Auction. Pretty much anyone who was anyone would be there. Even Meredith and Jayde. Meredith had to be there for work, taking pictures for the paper. While Jayde would be there by the invitation of her best friend, Thea Queen.

Although, Jayde would be there for another reason. A name dubbed Deadshot would be targetting the people there, specifically those who were interested in buying Unidac Industries. During his visit to her room the night before the man in the green hood had told Jayde that Floyd Lawton, known as Deadshot by Interpol, was hired by one of the shareholders named Wrren Patel, wanting to take out the competition, literally.

She had given the hooded man her leather ensamble and weapons the night before, so that they would be at the auction when she needed them.

Once she was dressed in a simple midnight blue dress, Thea showed up with the driver to pick her up for the auction. Normally, Jayde would avoid going to these tpes of things. But she had a job to do.

When the two teens arrived, pretty much everyone was already there. Including Meredith. Waving to her cousin as she walked by, Jayde followed Thea over to where Moira and Walter were talking.

"...because i have the two most beautiful women at my side tonight." she heard Walter say.

"Two?" moira 's when Jayde and Thea walked up to them.

"What am i chopped liver?" Jayde joked with a laugh, giving Walter a hug.

"Of course not, Jayde." he smiled. "Thanks for coming, Thea, and you as well, Jayde. It means alot to your mother. And me."

" " one of the assistants interrupted. "The auction will be opening in five minutes. Please make sure you bid is ready." she said.

"Thank you, Gina." Walter said, sending the woman away before turning to his wife and stepdaughter. "Shall we?" he asked.

"Mm-hmm" Moira nodded as she took his arm.

As they walked, Jayde could see the cops talking to one of the men that was in attendance. Jayde assumed it was Warren Patel when they led him away from the building in cuffs.

Jayde wanted to be relieved that Patel was being taken away, but she knew that there was no time for that. Just because Warren Patel had been arrested, didn't mean that his hit was called off. Deadshot was still there.

Breaking herself away from Thea, Jayde walked over to where Meredith was snapping pictures. "You see Patel get taken away?" she asked her cousin quietly, so that no one could here her.

"Yea."Meredith nodded, still taking pictures of random people who were at the auction. "What are yo u going to do?" she asked her cousin.

"My job" was all Jayde. "Keep a look out" she added before walking away.

While Jayde was wandering around the room, looking out the windows, attempting to see where Deadshot could be hiding.

For a few more minutes, Meredith was left alone, doing her job and taking pictures of various company figure heads that were there. When she felt a presence standing next to her, Meredith lowered her camera and turned. Seeing Oliver there, she smiled.

"Hey Ollie" she said, before raising the camera in front of her face and taking a picture of him.

"Mere, you shouldn't be here" Oliver said sternly.

"Right" Meredith said with a scoff "Oliver. I'm doing my job, i'm not going anywhere." Granted that wasn't the only reason why Meredith was at the auction. But she couldn't tell Oliver that. She couldn't tell him that the hooded man came to Jayde for help with Deadshot. So she lied.

"Mere-bear, please" Oliver said, his eyes softening "Please, if _anything_ happens, anything at all. You get the hell out of here."

For a few minutes after Oliver left her side to talk to his mother and Walter, Meredith scanned the room through the lens of her camera.

Gasping, Meredith pulled the camera away from her face again when she saw the laser from a sniper-rifle appear on Walter's back. Apparently, so did Detective Lance, and just before the shots that were fired, made their way to Walter, the detective moved him out of the way.

More shots were fired, and Meredith took cover close by to where Oliver stood with Thea and Moira. She saw Jayde making her way up the stairs. Meredith knew, of course, what he cousin was doing.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Oliver asked his mother as he looked over Meredith, seeing that she wasn't hurt.

"No, I'm fine! Where is Walter?" Moira asked. Just as she did, Meredith saw Detective Lance running with Walter to take cover.

"Walter's fine, Moira" Meredith told her calmly.

"Sir, i have to get you out of here." Dig said to his client.

"No" Oliver answered before pointing to the three women. "Them!" he added before he ran off in the same direction Meredith saw Jayde go in. Of course Meredith was curious as to why he was going up the stairs, but quickly dismissed it as Dig told them to get out of the building.

"I'll find him, ma'am. I'll find him." he said before running after Oliver.

**-/-**

After changing quickly into her leather outfit and smeared the grease paint over her eyes, Jayde found a small dark corner to hide in as she waited for the man in the hood. Minutes later, the two of them were grappling across to the next building over, where the shots were coming from.

"You ready for this?" the hooded man asked her when they landed on the cement of the landing.

Jayde simply nodded her head as she readied her weapons. She would have felt better if she had some form of projectile weapon instead of her ring daggers, but she worked with what she had.

As if reading her mind, the man next to her pulled something out of his quiver. A collapsible midnight blue and silver bow. Smiling, she took it from him along with a couple of arrows, which she held in place on her belt. First thing Jayde thought, was that she needed to get herself a quiver.

It didn't take them long to find Deadshot. He was still in front of the window he had shot from. Jayde strung an arrow into her bow and took aim from behind her hooded accomplice, who also had an arrow ready.

"Drop your guns" the man said.

"I admire your work. Both of you. Guess you wont be extending me any professional courtesy." Deadshot taunted, holding up his hands.

"We're not in the same kind of work, you sick son of a bitch." Jayde growled, her eyes following his every movement.

"Your profession is murder" the hood added.

"You've taken lives" Deadshot pointed out to him before turning to Jayde "and you, young lady. You've gotten so close to crossing that line" he tutted.

"Shut your cake hole" Jayde growled, itching let the arrow go.

"We've done what we've done for the good of others. You're out for yourself."

The next thing Jayde knew, Deadshot was firing from a hidden firearm in his arm cuff, and they were taking cover. Once the gun shots died down, Jayde was the first to respond, firing off an arrow in Deadshots direction. She had never had any true training with a bow, and was hoping that she hit her mark

Hearing a 'thump' come from where Deadshot once stood, Jayde and her...friend, came out from their hiding spots, and found that Jayde had hit her mark. An arrow piercing through Deadshots eye piece.

As the hooded man clapped Jayde on the back, they heard a groan come from the doorway behind them. Turning, they saw Dig hunched over. Rushing over to him, they saw that he had been shot.

"Text your cousin, tell her you're going to be home late" the man in green told Jayde. Nodding numbly she sent the message to Meredith and followed her friend, who was now carrying Dig, out to a black car.

The man's base of operations was a place Jayde had been before. She just couldn't place when, or where they were. She couldn't remember. They were in a sub-level of an abandoned building, that much she knew.

After he put Dig on a small metal table in the middle of the room, the man went over to a old wooden chest in the corner, pulling out a small bag of herbs. Jayde knew what it was as soon as he crushed them up, and mixed them with some water. They were same herbs that Jayde kept in her dresser.

Once the mixture was forced down Dig's throat, the man Jayde was with revealed himself. Her eyes widening in surprise when he took off his hood.

"Jay" he nodded.

"O-Ollie?" Jayde stammered. "seriously?" she was at a loss for words. He was the last person she expected to be hidden underneath that green hood.

"You know you can't tell Mere, right?" he asked her. The thought of keeping something like this from her cousin was troubling, but Jayde nodded her head.

"It's gunna be hard, but yea. I understand why. It's dangerous." Jayde said, sitting down on the chair that was near by.

"You handled yourself pretty well." Oliver complimented.

"Thanks. Using the bow, though..." she trailed off "i honestly wasn't expecting to hit him" she said, looking at the bow he had given her.

"It's a good thing you did" Oliver smiled at her.

"Didn't do Dig any good, though" Jayde argued. Oliver came over to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Jay, you did great. Dig's going to be fine." he said to her.

Jayde just nodded, and before she knew it, Dig was starting to stir.

As he opened his eyes, he saw Oliver. "Hey" was all the blonde man said.

"Oliver?" Dig asked as soon as he saw the other mans face, barely noticing that Jayde was there. "You're that vigilante" he said as he started to walk towards him. Dig tried to swing at Oliver, but was still weak and Oliver easily dodged him.

"Easy, Dig, you were poisoned." Jayde said from her seat.

"You son of a bitch" he said to Oliver, Dig tried to come at him again, but Oliver easily restrained him.

"Dude, it wasn't him that poisoned you" Jayde said with an eye roll.

"I could have taken you anywhere, could have taken you home" Oliver said when he released his grip on Dig. "I brought you here" he added.

"you really did lose your mind on that island" Dig told Oliver.

"Found a couple things along the way." Oliver shrugged.

"Like what, archery classes?" Dig asked with a scoff.

"Clarity" was Oliver's answer. "Starling City is dying. It is being poisoned by a criminal elite who don't care who they hurt, as long as they maintain their wealth and power" Oliver added.

"So, what, you're going to take them all down by your lonesome" Dig asked.

"no" Oliver shook his head, nodded towards Jayde. "Now, i want you to join me...join us." he told Dig, causing him to scoff. "Special forces out of Kandahar. It's perfect. You're a fellow soldier." Oliver added.

"Oliver, you're not a soldier. Neither is she" Dig said with a nod in Jayde's direction. "You're a criminal. and a murderer" he added before he walked away and left the building.

"Well that went well" Jayde smiled.

**-/-**

By the time that Jayde got home, she was exhausted. She had ended up changing back into her dress before leaving the abandoned factory where Oliver had set up his base, and where he planned on opening his club.

She still couldn't believe that Oliver Queen was the vigilante of Starling City. And that she had to keep it a secret from her cousin. Considering the two of them told each other everything, it would be a difficult task.

When Jayde walked through the door to the apartment, Onyx came running towards her. Laughing silently, Jayde bent down to pick up the puppy and walked into the living room, where Meredith and Jager were sitting, watching TV.

"So you get him?" Meredith asked.

"Yea" Jayde nodded. "even got my own bow" Jayde smiled.

"So you're going to be working with that guy more?" Meredith asked as Jager moved from the back of the couch and onto her lap. Jayde just nodded. She wanted to tell Meredith who was underneath that hood. But she couldn't

"oooh he tell you who he is?" her cousin said, leaning forward as Jayde sat on the couch next to her. Jayde just shook her head. "Well that sucks." Meredith pouted a little.

"Yea i don't think he trusts me yet with his identity, even though he knows mine." Jayde said, letting Onyx jump off of her lap.

"Makes sense with the things he does though" Meredith pointed out. A part of her wanted to tell Jayde that she had seen Oliver running up the same flight of stairs as she did the night before, but she knew that Oliver couldn't be the man in the hood. He just couldn't be.

"Hey I'm gunna go get changed then head over to Roy's alright?" Jayde asked, Meredith just nodded her head in response. Giving her cousin a small hug, Jayde got up and went to her bedroom, closing the door behind her with a sigh.

Once dressed in a simple pair of light blue skinny jeans, a white tank top and brown boots, Jayde left.

She was halfway to Roy's went Oliver texted her, telling her to meet him at Big Belly Burger. After sending him a quick response, she texted Roy, telling him that she was going to pick them up some lunch.

As she walked into the restaurant and walked over to the counter to place her order, Jayde saw Dig sitting in a booth, talking to his sister-in-law. And once she gave her order to the cashier, Jayde made her way to where Dig was sitting.

"I knew that Queen guy was trouble" Carly said.

"Hey i never said this happened protecting Queen." Was Dig's response, explaining to her why his arm was in a sling.

"Actually, he got it protecting me." Jayde interfered. "Yea, some dick thought it would be fun to pull a gun on me, thankfully Dig was nearby" she added with a smile as she sat across from Dig in the booth.

"Oh yea? Then what's he dong here?" Carly asked, nodding towards the door. Sure enough, Oliver was standing there with his new bodyguard.

"Area secure, sir" the bodyguard said.

"Thank you very much, Rob" Oliver said before walking over to them. "Hello, Diggle's sister-in-law Carly, I'm Oliver Queen." he introduced.

"I know who you are" Carly responded, obviously not impressed.

"No, you really don't" Dig said almost under her breath before turning to Oliver "Hello"

"Hi Ollie" Jayde said with a smile, "fancy meeting you here" she added, stealing a french fry from Dig meal as Oliver sat down next to her.

"I couldn't help but notice a distinct lack of police cars when i got home, and no cuff marks on Jayde's wrists. I knew you wouldn't drop a dime on us." Oliver stated. "So have you considered my offer?" he asked.

"Offer?" Dig scoffed. "that's a hell of a way to put it."

"It is an offer, Dig" Jayde said.

"Its a chance to do the kind of good that compelled you to join the military." Oliver told him, causing Dig to scoff again.

"Please, you were born with a platinum spoon in your mouth, Queen." Dig said "What you spend five years on an island with no room service and suddenly you found religion?" he scoffed before turning to Jayde "And you, you're just a kid."

As Oliver pulled out a small, weather-worn notebook from his jacket pocket, Jayde scoffed back at Dig. "Honestly, Diggle, you don't know the first damn thing about me" she said.

"Dig, this was my father's," Oliver said as he slid the book across the table. Dig looked at it for a moment, flipping through the pages quickly before Oliver took it back. "I found it when i buried him"

"I thought you said your father died when the boat went down" Dig questioned. That is what Oliver had told everyone, but not even Jayde believed it for one moment.

"We both made it to the life raft, but there wasn't enough food and water for the both of us, so she shot himself in the head" Oliver explained. Jayde's eyes went wide for a moment, she wasn't expecting that. "And as much as he was doing it to give me a chance to survive," Oliver continued to explain "I believe he was also atoning for his sins."

"we all have our reasons for doing this, Dig. Oliver is doing it to right the wrongs done by his family. And he's giving me and you the chance to right the wrongs don't _to_ ours." Jayde supplied, causing Dig to look at her.

"What about you?" he asked her, causing her to look down. Jayde never really talked about her reasons for going out at night and stopping bad guys. Considering Meredith was the only one who knew, she never really needed to.

"Not to long after Oliver went missing, my mother she uh..." Jayde fumbled for the words. "I was about twelve when my step-father bashed her skull in while i sat in the next room" she said, tears threatening to spill. "I told everyone i could that it was him, but they never believed me. So i do everything i can to make sure that doesn't happen to any other family"

The three of them were silent for a minute before Dig turned to Oliver. "What are you talking about. The wrongs done to my family?" he asked.

"the police never caught your brother's shooter." Jayde said with a shrug.

"Hey you leave Andy out of this" Dig threatened.

"the bullets were laced with curare. That's Floyd Lawton's M.O. and he is the sniper we stopped."

"Are you trying to tell me that you two took down Andy's killer?" Dig asked.

"I'm..." Oliver started "I'm giving you the chance, a chance to help other peoples families" he said. "Do you remember when the people in this city helped each other?" he asked Dig. "They can't do that anymore, because a group of people, people like my father, they see nothing wrong with raising themselves up by stepping on other peoples throats."

"It needs to stop" Jayde supplied, looking between the two men.

"And if it's not gunna be the courts, and it's not gunna be the cops..." Oliver trailed off for a moment "then it's gunna be me. And Jayde. And, i hope, you" he added before standing, causing his new body guard to walk up to h them. "I'm gunna go to the washroom, Rob." he said before he walked towards the bathrooms.

Dig just looked at Rob as Jayde stood to go get her food. "Oh, that boy's long gone, man" he said.

"Oh yea." Jayde laughed, patting Rob's shoulder before leaving.

After Jayde left the diner, she made it to Roy's house in a few short minutes with their food. "hey you made it" Roy smiled as he let her in. "i was starting to think that you got lost or something" he added, causing Jayde to laugh.

"nope there was just a long line at the diner" she lied with a laugh as the two of them went into the living room.

The duo joked around and ate their food for a while before they got more comfortable on the couch, watching a movie. With Roy laying down length wise on the couch, and Jayde laying next to him with her head on chest chest, his fingers playing with small strands of her hair, Jayde felt like everything that had happened at the Exchange building the night before didn't happen. She always felt at peace when they were together.

Meredith had warned her not to fall for Roy, at risk of getting hurt. But Jayde couldn't help it. Every second with him she felt herself falling further and further in love with him.

Hearing her sigh, Roy looked down at her and saw her smile as her eyes stayed glued on the television. Sensing his eyes on her, Jayde looked up at him and smiled.

"What?" she asked. Roy just smiled back at her and shook his head.

"Nothing." he responded. Jayde was about to out her head back down on his chest when his mouth came down on hers.

Surprise took over her at first, but after a second, Jayde responded with a smile. This kiss wasn't the same as the last time. This kiss was passionate and filled with heat as his tongue lightly brushed against her lower lip.

Allowing him entrance, Roy tongue wrestled with her own. Lightly, Roy wrapped his arms around her and shifted so that she was fully on top of him. Every part of her knew that she shouldn't be kissing him like this, that she would just wind up getting hurt. But it felt to good to stop.

"Well, that was nice" Jayde said once they pulled away from each other, a smile on her face as she looked down at him.

"Just nice?" Roy joked, his arms still wrapped around her.

"mm-hhmm" she said as she kissed his nose.

"Oh well, that's it then" Roy said before he moved swiftly so that she was pinned under him before he kissed her deeply, yet again.

"Mmmmm... better" Jayde joked, causing Roy to roll his eyes and move so that they were in the same position they were in earlier.

"Come here you" he muttered, pulling her closer to him him, causing her to giggle.

**-/-**

After Jayde left, Meredith sat alone in the apartment with Jager and Onyx, thankful that she didn't have to go into the office after the shooting the night before. Once she was done with the chores around the house, and making sure Jager and Onyx had fresh food and water; Meredith had started to upload the pictures from the auction.

While she waited for them to finish uploading, Meredith made herself a sandwich and sat back down on the couch. Once she was done eating, and Meredith got to work going through the pictures and the ones she was going to be sending to her boss, there was a knock at the door.

When she opened the door, she saw Oliver standing there. Smiling, Meredith let him inside. "So to what do i owe this visit, Mr. Queen" she joked as they went into the living room, where Jager rubbed against his legs and Onyx started jumping on him.

"Ah you know, just wanted to come and see my favorite girl" he said as he sat on the couch. His comment making her heart flutter ever so slightly. But Meredith didn't want to go down that road again, she couldn't let her self fall for Oliver Queen again. But who was she kidding, she never stopped loving the man, and she probably never would. "So what are you up to?" he asked her.

"Nothing" Meredith shrugged. "After everything that happened last night, my boss actually let me work from home today, so I'm just getting some editing done." she said, motioning towards her laptop that was currently on the coffee table.

For a little while, Oliver just watched TV and also watched Meredith finished editing her pictures. Once she was done, she closed her laptop and stretched, causing the green t-shirt she was wearing to rise up a little bit and show her stomach, causing Oliver to groan inwardly.

"hey Ollie, can i ask you something?" Meredith asked a second later, after fixing her shirt.

"Technically you just did, but shoot." Oliver shrugged, trying to ignore the urge to kiss her again.

Meredith let out a short sigh as she thought of her words. "Last night, at the auction..." she trailed off for a second before continuing "why did you run upstairs, towards the bullets and away from me and your family?" she asked.

"Well," Oliver began, "i saw Jay head up there a little while before, and i wanted to make sure she was okay" he lied. Meredith knew it was a lie. She had known Oliver long enough that she knew his tell. Whenever he lied, his left eye would twitch, ever so slightly. Normally, someone who didn't know him wouldn't notice it. But Meredith did.

What Meredith didn't know, was why he was lying to her. But she let it go, telling herself that he had his reasons. So she just nodded her head and muttered a soft "ok" before standing up from the couch.

"Come on" she said, holding a hand out to him. "we're going for a walk. I don't feel like being cooped up in the house all day" she smiled.

Nodding, Oliver took her hand and they left the apartment.

**-/-**

For the rest of the day, Jayde and Roy lay on his couch, watching movies and occasionally making out.

It was just after sundown and Jayde and Roy were still laying on the couch. Making out. Jayde had to admit, she loved the feeling. They had just put on another movie, when Jayde's phone rang. Groaning, Jayde got up off of Roy and grabbed her phone off of the coffee table. Not bothering to see who was calling before answering

"Hello?" she said, slightly irritated.

"'_Jay, Ollie's been arrested._'" It was Meredith. Jayde could tell that that her cousin was in hysterics.

"What why?" Jayde asked.

"'_I-I don't know. D-Detective Lance said something about acting as a vigilante. But Jayde, it can't be him, can it?'"_ Meredith ask, causing Jayde to bite her lip. She didn't want to continue lying to her. But she had to.

"No, Merrie. It couldn't be him. Look, I-I'm on my way there okay?" she said, trying to console her cousin. Meredith gave her a quick okay before they hang up. "I am _sooo_ sorry, but i got to go." she said, standing up.

"Hey, no, it's okay. Meredith sound like she was really upset." Roy told her, holding on loosely to her hand.

Jayde smiled before leaning over to give him a soft kiss. "I'll give you a call later, okay?" she said. Roy just nodded before Jayde kissed him again and left.

**AN: well how did you all feel about this chapter? Jay is now officially working with Ollie, and both girls are still lying to themselves. lots of awesome stuff to come! also if you go onto my profile there is a link to polyvore where i make sets and stuff to go along with this story. As always leave love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	10. Chapter 10

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Ten-**

After Jayde showed up at the police station, she walked inside with Meredith, Moira and Walter. She was nervous for Oliver, not because they were close friends or anything, but because if he was sent to jail, then it would blow their whole crusade out of the water.

As soon as they were inside, Moira went to the first officer she saw and told him that she was Oliver Queen's mother. Nodding, the officer led her and Walter to the interrogation room, telling Detective Lance that she was there.

"I want to see my son!" Moira demanded as she and Walter went into the room, leaving Meredith and Jayde in the squad room.

"So now we wait?" Jayde asked her cousin, who nodded as she walked over to detective Lance's partner.

"Detective, can i ask you some thing?" she questioned, leaning against his desk, looking up at her, he nodded. "Alright so i'm not a laywer or anything like that. But i was told that the only evidence that you have against Oliver is him grabbing an object out of a trashcan."

"Yes, that's correct..." he said.

"Well, did you catch him on camera or otherwise wearing the green hood?" she asked, cutting the detective off. He went to open his mouth to say something, but Meredith stopped him. "Look, i don't know how any of this _crap_ you guys call police work down here, but wouldn't that be inconclusive evidence?" she asked, he went to speak again, but Meredith stopped him yet again "no, seriously? I don't wanna hear any bullshit you can feed me." she added before walking back over to Jayde, who was biting her lip and nervously looking around at the cops.

It was understandable that Jayde was nervous, considering the fact that no cop in Starling City believed her about her mother's murder five years ago. And the fact that Jayde spent her nights essentially being a vigilante and taking down small time criminals.

Sighing, Meredith put her arm around her cousins shoulders and they walked over to some chairs to sit, and wait.

Minutes later, Walter and Moira came out of the interrogation room and walked over to the girls.

"Time to go" Walter told them, nodding, the cousins stood and walked out of the police station. "I didn't want to say this while we were still in there." Walter began once they were in the car "But Oliver wants Laurel as his attorney" he said, causing Meredith's eyes to widen.

"What about the family lawyer?" Jayde asked, Moira just shook her head.

"No, Oliver said that if he can't have her, then he doesn't want an attorney." she said.

"Well then, he is severely brain damaged." Jayde grumbled.

Minutes later, they were sitting outside of CNRI, the firm Laurel worked at, while Meredith, Jayde and Walter sat out in the car. For twenty minutes the three of them sat in silence, unsure of what to talk about.

When Moira returned to the car, she had an upset look on her face. "What did she say?" Meredith asked her. Moira just shook her head, causing Meredith and Jayde to sigh.

"Look's like Oliver's going it alone" Jayde said.

**-/-**

The next day was Oliver's bail hearing, and both girls had agreed to attend in order to support the family. Not to long after they were seated with the rest of the family, Oliver was brought in.

"Docket number 81941, people versus Oliver Queen. Murder, aggravated assault, assault with attempt, menacing and trespassing" the bailiff called out as he handed the papers in his hands to the Judge.

"Where's your attorney, Mr. Queen?" the judge asked.

"I'm representing myself, judge" was Oliver's answer. And it made Meredith and Jayde, along with Oliver's family, very nervous.

"I'm not sure that's the wisest course, Mr. Queen" the Judge told him.

"I think it is. I'm innocent" Oliver said as he stood.

"The we'll consider your plea" she said.

"Thank you" Oliver stated as he sat back down.

"Now as to bail..."the judge began to say, before the opposing lawyer interrupted her.

"Your honor, Mr. Queen's family owns a pair of jets, and well, on the subject of their wealth, " she started "i would point out that there is virtually no bail amount that could guarantee his presence at trial." she said.

"So i guess it's a good thing that the people's case is so circumstantial" came a voice from the back of the court room, causing a majority of people to turn, including Jayde and Meredith. It was Laurel. "Dinah Laurel Lace, your honor. I'd like to file my appearance on behalf of the defendant." she added, causing Meredith to let out a sigh of relief " Mr. Queen's wealth should not deprive him of the right to be released on bail while under the presumption of innocence." Laurel finished as she sat next to Oliver.

Meredith stole a glance towards Laurel's father, he did not look happy.

"He is a flight risk" the opposing attorney argued.

"Then minimize the risk" Laurel stated. "The defendant is willing to submit to home confinement and electronic monitoring through the wearing of a ukg45 administered ankle device" she added.

"No he would not" Oliver argued. Jayde thought it made sense that he didn't want to wear the ankle bracelet. It would interfere with his job.

"Sold" the Judge said, ignoring Oliver.

"Your honor" the other lawyer tried to argue, but the judge wasn't listening.

"Bail is set at $15 million. $5 million bond" she said "Defendant to see probation for the fitting of a gps device." with that she banged her gavel and court was adjourned.

While Oliver talked to Laurel for a few minutes, Meredith felt the same sinking sensation in her stomach that she had always felt every time she saw the two of them together. But she ignored it, linked her arms with Jayde and exited the court room.

**-/-**

"Mom, It's not that bad" Oliver told his mother when they were back at the mansion. He was getting the ankle bracelet put on.

"Okay. This device has a direct line into the precinct." the officer said as he finished putting it on Oliver "stay on the property, you're golden. any question?" he asked.

"Yes" Oliver stated "I'm having a sizable get together here tomorrow evening and there is a better than likely chance it spills into the outdoor pool." he said.

"Pool, that's fine, step on the grass and their sending a swat team to forcibly subdue you" the officer warned.

"Thank you officer" Walter told him as he left.

"A sizable get together?" Moira asked her son.

"Seriously, Ollie, i don't think this is a good idea" Meredith put in from her spot on the couch next to him.

"I am confined to this house for the foreseeable future, i might as well make the most of it" Oliver told the two women. "And this party is going to be themed. I'm thinking prison, uh, Burning Man meets 'Shawshank Redemption'. The invite said 'come before Oliver Queen gets off'" he said, causing Meredith to roll her eyes.

"That sound... slightly dirty, Ollie" she muttered.

Tommy walked over and sat on the other side of Oliver. "Maybe a party's not in the best of taste." he said "You know, considering the circumstances." he added. Meredith never thought she would see the day where Tommy Merlyn thought that a party was a bad idea.

"Tommy," Oliver started "the circumstances are why we're having the party in the first place." he said, putting an arm around Meredith's waist. "I want people to know that I'm not worried about this." he added. Meredith just moved closer to him and put her head on his shoulder with a sigh. Enjoying his closeness for as long as she could.

"Well, that makes one of us" Moira said before leaving the room.

When Tommy took, Meredith home, Jayde stayed behind, wanting to hang out with Thea. Although that wasn't the real reason. Oliver had sent her a discreet text, saying that they needed to talk...business, with Dig.

So after she left Thea's room under the guise of going to the bathroom, Jayde went to Oliver's bedroom, one of the only rooms in the house she had never been in, and waited with Oliver for Diggle to show up.

Not to long after Jayde sat in the chair across from Oliver's desk, there was a knock at the door.

"Yea" Oliver said, knowing that it was Dig. "Thank you for coming, shut the door" he told the other man.

"What's up Dig" Jayde smiled.

"Hey, Jayde." he said before turning to Oliver "I guess it was a matter of time before the police caught up with you." Dig told him.

"Except they didn't" Oliver said, causing Jayde to raise her eyebrow,

"Oliver, they got you on video" Dig said.

"Actually, they got Oliver taking something out of the trash, they don't have any footage of him putting on the hood" Jayde pointed out.

"I knew the camera was there" Oliver said "Just like i knew the police would review the footage and arrest me. All part of the plan" he added.

"What plan?" Jayde questioned, he had never told her about any plan. Then again, they had only just started working together.

"So you wanted to get arrested?" Dig asked him.

"Well, I returned to Starling City and a few days later the vigilante appears" Oliver stated "Sooner or later somebody was going to make the connection" What he didn't know was that Meredith was already starting to.

"So what part of serving yourself up to the cops will help you avoid going to prison for the rest of your life?" Diggle asked him.

"He's not going to prison" Jayde snapped. She wouldn't let Meredith suffer the heart break of loosing him again. Not if she could help it.

"There's more to it" Oliver said calmly.

"Well, there better be, for your sake,because your family is freaking out downstairs." Dig started "Oliver your mother and sister and Meredith just got you back, and now you're going to put them through trial, maybe even worse. Don't you care?" Dig asked.

"I wouldn't worry about Mere, she's stronger than you think" Jayde shrugged, she wanted to tell Oliver about the fact that she wasn't the only one protecting the Glade's from muggers and the like, that Meredith helped as well. She just didn't want to keep Oliver's secret from Meredith.

"Of course i care" Oliver stated. "But the mission comes first" he added as he turned his laptop to show the screen to Diggle and herself.

"Who's the creep?" Jayde asked.

"Leo Mueller. German arms dealer." Oliver answered. "Suspected in the theft of a hundred m249 squad automatic weapons" he added, causing Jayde to whistle lowly.

"Okay" Dig said, still not understanding what Oliver was saying.

"Last night he arrived in Starling City to sell the guns" Oliver said.

"Oliver don't you imagine there's enough trouble you're in this week than to go after this guy?" Dig asked him.

"I imagine what would happen if a street gang got their hands on military grade hardware" Oliver said "I imagine our city's streets turned into a war zone" he added.

"Some bad mojo, Dig" Jayde told him.

"But you're under house arrest, Oliver, which means you can't go after this guy" Dig tried yo reason with him.

"He never said _who_ was going after this douche, Diggle" Jayde said with a smile as she stood from the chair. "Now if you gentlemen would excuse me, i got to get back or Thea will think i fell in" she added before leaving the room.

**-/-**

The next night was Oliver's party and Meredith was getting ready, with Jayde's help of course. Jayde had been invited as well, under strict drink limitations, but she declined. She wasn't that much of a party girl, and just wanted to stay home and finish up her final essay before she graduated.

Earlier in the day, Meredith and Jayde had gone to a local year-round costume shop to find an outfit that would meet the theme of Oliver's party. And in no time at all, Meredith had found a good costume and was leaving her house dressed in a short dark blue, almost black, cop-costume dress that was zipped down to show just enough cleavage and the hemline falling just bellow her butt. Paired with a pair of shiny black boot's and black fishnets, Meredith thought she looked good.

Meredith had thought that the costume was a little too revealing, but was forced into it by her cousin. Jayde had also told her that the dress was the perfect way to get Oliver's attention. Never hurt to show a little skin.

By the time she made it to Oliver's house, the party was in full swing. Not seeing him anywhere, Meredith made her way to one of the many bar-stands that were located around the house, getting herself a shot of tequila.

After tossing back at least three shots, she started feeling light and was just about to grab another shot when she saw Oliver walking by her. Forgetting her drink, she followed him outside and watched as he stood up on a near by table, signaling for the DJ to cut the music.

"Hi everybody!" he said happily, causing everybody to cheer back at him. "I'm very touched that you came to celebrate with me before i am sent up the river" Oliver continued, "Closest neighbors are six miles away, so don't worry about the noise" he paused for a moment before saying "actually, on second thought... let's wake those losers up" the crows cheered and the music started back up again as he jumped off of the table to talk to Diggle.

Meredith couldn't hear what they were talking about, due to the music, so she went back inside and grabbed another drink from the bar just as Oliver and Diggle went back upstairs. A few minutes later, Meredith had already finished her drink and was working on another one when Oliver came back downstairs and saw her.

"Hey Mere-Bear" he said, coming up from behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her tightly against him.

"Hey Ollie" Meredith smiled as she felt the warmth of his body envelope her.

"I was hoping you would make it" he said, letting her go and letting her turn around. "come on, lets go upstairs so we can talk" he told her as he took her hand and led her back up to his bedroom. Causing Meredith's legs to tremble and her heart to pound in her chest.

Once upstairs, Meredith sat on Oliver's bed, causing her dress to ride up ever so slightly. And Oliver noticed it. He had only brought Meredith up to his bedroom so that they could talk, but seeing her sitting on his bed, in that dress, caused his mouth to go dry.

"So what's up Ollie?" Meredith asked in a husky voice, looking over at him with heavily lidded eyes.

Before she knew it, his lips crashed down on hers and he was softly pushing her onto her back on the bed. The kiss caught her off guard at first, but Meredith welcomed it nonetheless. Kissing Oliver would never get old to her.

As she let out a muffled moan, Oliver deepened the kiss as one of her legs came up around his waist. Meredith didn't know what her body was doing, but due to the drinks she had that night, she just let it happen.

They lay like that for a few minutes, enjoying the closeness of each other before Oliver broke the kiss and pushed himself off of the bed, causing Meredith to groan in disappointment.

"Dammit Mere, you know i..." he started, but Meredith held up a shaky hand, stopping him.

"Ollie, it's fine i get it. Just remember that i wont be another notch in your bed post" she said as she got off of the bed and fixed her dress "I'm one of your best friends, Ollie. And when you're ready..." she trailed off for a second "I'm here" and with that, she went back to the party.

**-/-**

Jayde was alone in the apartment when Dig called her and told her to get ready to take down the gun deal. After doing what he asked, she turned off all the lights in the apartment and went out to the fire escape to wait for Diggle to show up, in Oliver's green hood.

After the two of them left the apartment in a black car with darkly tinted windows, it took them about a half an hour to reach the warehouse district of the Glades. Quietly, they crept into the warehouse where the buy was going down and while Jayde hid in the shadows of the rafters, Dig hid not to far from the entrance of the warehouse, keeping his head down, as not to be seen.

"It's an m249 machine gun. Gas powered, air cooled. Fires up to 800 rounds per minute." Mueller told the gang-bangers that he was selling the guns to as he tossed the leader the machine gun.

Suddenly, the electricity shorted out, causing the warehouse to be shrouded in partial darkness, and Jayde to smirk. "We need to move, now!" Mueller shouted to the men. Show time.

Quickly, Dig dispatched the gang-bangers that remained in the warehouse, letting Mueller get away on purpose. They were not there to take him down, just to stop the buy.

As she watched the scene below, Jayde kept an arrow notched in her bow, just in case. She watched as one of the men that Dig didn't fully knock out started to stand up, and reach for a gun in his waist band. Without thinking, Jayde let her arrow fly, the arrow spearing itself through the gang-bangers knee.

Noticing what could have happened, Dig looked up at Jayde and nodded in appreciation. Jayde just nodded back, the two of them silent as they left the warehouse, calling Oliver on the way back to the apartment.

* * *

**AN: yay for chapter ten! so what did you guys think? poor Mere she really want Ollie, but she knows how he is. We need to get them together dont you think? Anyways I'd like to thank everyone who has given this story a chance. Everyone who has reviewed and followed and favorited this story, you guys make me smile. **

**ooh also, if you guys go onto my profile, there is a link to my polyvore account, where i have made sets and stuff to go along with this story, go check it out! As Always, Leave Love. )0( Iris RainbowWolf)0(**


	11. Chapter 11

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Eleven -**

Jayde sat in her bedroom, internally freaking out. Today was the day that she graduated from high school. She was graduating earlier than the rest of the seniors, and it was a pretty big deal. Standing next to her bed, Jayde stared at the three dresses she had picked out. Unsure of which one she wanted to wear.

"Mere!" she called out to her cousin, who had already been dressed for the past hour. Seconds later, Meredith walked into the room, and sighed at her cousin.

"Jay, why are you dressed yet?" she asked, causing Jayde to sigh as well.

"I have absolutely no clue to wear." she groaned, glancing back at her cell phone. "Plus Roy hasn't texted me back to say he's coming or not."

"Okay first, forget about Roy for a minute, or you'll drive yourself insane" Meredith advised as she walked over and looked at the dressed on the bed. "and second, wear the blue one. You always look good in blue." she said with a smile, picking up the midnight blue sundress off of the bed. Smiling, Jayde took the dress from her cousin and finished getting dressed, touching up her make up quickly before sliding on a pair of midnight blue wedges.

"You ready to go Mere?" Jayde joked, knowing her cousin had been ready to leave for a few hours now. Laughing, Meredith nodded and the two girls were out the door and on their way to Jayde's graduation.

Almost an hour later, Jayde was sitting in a chair on the stage as the principle of her school spoke. As she sat, she saw Meredith sitting with the Queen family and Tommy in the crowd, and of course she was snapping pictures the entire time.

Smiling Jayde scanned the crowd again, looking for one person in particular. He still hadn't shown up and her heart dropped. Minutes later, her name was being called for her to walk across the stage to accept her diploma.

As she walked across the stage, she heard her cousin cheering louder than anyone else had, causing her to blush. After shaking the principles hand and taking her diploma from him, Jayde saw something red in the way back of the crowd, away from everyone else.

Her heart skipped a beat as she walked back to her seat. He had shown up after all.

**-/-**

After they had left the graduation ceremony, Jayde sat in the apartment with Meredith, Tommy and the Queen family. They were all having a small celebration for her. As Jayde sat in the living room, laughing with Thea, she didn't notice Oliver and Meredith sneak off to the kitchen.

"So you wanted to talk to me?" Meredith asked as she leaned against the counter, folding her arms over her chest.

"Yea" Oliver nodded as he looked her over. " Um, i just wanted, you know, apologize for the other night" he said, causing Meredith to raise an eye brow.

"Ollie." she said as she took a few steps toward him. "You don't have to." she added, putting a hand on his arm. "I told you that it was okay. And that i would be here when you're ready, remember?" she told him with a smile.

Meredith wanted nothing more than to have him be with her, just like they were the night of his party. But she knew that the chances of it happening again were unlikely, so she shook of her disappointment and put on a smile, just like she used to.

"Sooo..." Oliver trailed off. "We're good then?" he asked, motioning between the two of them. Hoping that after the...incident at his party, that she wouldn't stop talking to him like she did after their non-date.

"Yea, Ollie," Meredith smiled "we're good" she said, leaning up and placing a light kiss on the corner of his mouth, causing him to smile and nod.

"Good" Ollie said with a smile, as he took her hand and led her back into the living room.

Once back in the living room with everyone else, Oliver sat o the couch and tried to pull Meredith lightly down on his lap. But instead of sitting down, Meredith pulled her hand away slightly and walked over to where Jayde sat on the floor with her cell phone in hand, texting away, noticing the disappointing look on Oliver face when she did.

"You know, Jay," Meredith started as she sat on the floor next to her cousin, pulling Jager onto her lap. "everyone's here for you" she said. Jayde just shrugged her shoulders as she typed away on her cellphone.

"Yea, and Ollie's here for you, so why are you avoiding him?" Jayde asked as she put her phone down in her lap. "Wait is this about what happened at the party?" she asked her cousin, who avoided eye contact.

They stayed silent for a moment, before Jayde's cell phone went off again. "Be careful with that, Jay." Meredith said, nodding her head towards the cell phone. Even though she knew that it was too late and that Jayde had already fallen.

A few hours later, Oliver, Tommy and the rest of their guest left, leaving the two girls alone. With a sigh, Jayde flopped down on the couch. "As much as i love them all, i am soooo glad that they are gone" Jayde chuckled.

Meredith smiled and sat down against the arm of the couch. "Yea, i know what you mean." she said, before looking at her cousin "so when's Roy coming over?" she asked, causing Jayde to go wide eyed.

"Who said Roy's coming over?" she denied.

"Oh come on, Jay, you haven't let that phone out of your sight all day" Meredith said, "it's not like it's rocket science" she added with an eye roll.

"Fine" Jayde groaned. "he should be he in, like, half an hour" she said, sitting up on the couch.

In no time at all, there was a knock at the door, and Jayde rushed to get it, knowing that it was Roy.

"Hey!" she smiled as she hugged him, before letting him through the door.

"hey" Roy said as they walked into the apartment. "I got something for you" he said pulling a small box out of his pocket when they sat on the couch, Meredith had already retreated back into her bedroom.

"Roy, you didn't have to do that" Jayde said as she took the box from him.

"Yea well, i did, so open it" Roy told her as he leaned back on the couch. Doing as she was told, Jayde ripped the light blue wrapping paper off of the box, and opened it. Inside she saw a black leather wrap bracelet with a golden bird charm on it.

"Oh my god, Roy it's perfect!" Jayde said happily as she took the bracelet out of the box and strapped it onto her wrist, getting a better view of it. "where did you get it?" she asked. Jayde new that sometimes Roy did some...less than legal things in order to survive. But that didn't mean that he was a bad guy.

"There's this place, not to far from my house, remember the store that i bought my wallet from a few weeks ago?" he asked, Jayde just nodded and played with the small 8-ball key chain that hung off of his wallet chain. "got it from there, the guy gave me a pretty good deal on it too" he smiled.

"Well, i love it" Jayde said, placing a light kiss on his cheek.

"It's no big thing" Roy said. Jayde just smiled and rested her head on his shoulder as she flipped on the TV.

The duo sat there comfortably for a few hours, before Roy went home. As soon as he was gone, Meredith came back into the living room, wearing her bathrobe. But Jayde knew what was underneath it, just by looking at the long black leather boots on her cousins feet.

"So how is Roy?" Meredith asked as she sat on the couch, crossing her legs.

"Roy's fine" Jayde shrugged as she played with the bracelet on her wrist. "He got me a present" she smiled, showing the leather around her wrist to her cousin.

"Oooh, that's pretty" Meredith told her. "Oh, by the way, we're going out tonight" she told her cousin, who just rolled her eyes.

"Yea i figured that" she said, pointing to the boots Meredith was wearing. "Just give me a minute to change" Jayde added, standing from the couch and making her way back to her bedroom.

Minutes later, once Jayde was dressed in her leather outfit and both girls had smeared grease paint over their eyes, they turned off all the lights in the apartment, and climbed down the fire escape outside of Jayde's bedroom window.

Meredith had caught wind of a man who was going to various homes in the Glades, robbing the people that lived there blind, the man had robbed over 15 houses and killed two people on his last run. The cops still hadn't caught him, not that Jayde was surprised. Starling City PD was a joke in her opinion. So it was up to her and Meredith to do their dirty work, and clean up their messes.

For the past few weeks, the girls had been planning on taking this guy down. They had found a pattern in his movements, and knew exactly where he was going to strike.

It didn't take Meredith and Jayde long to reach the house they knew the man was going to break into that night. Jayde thought it would be better to just set up shop in her old house, and plan a sting to catch him there. But technically, this was Meredith's case and Jayde was taking the back seat on this one.

So they sat, and waited in the shadows across the street from the house. Thankfully the family that lived there had left for vacation the week before and weren't due back for another. Just in time, they saw someone jimmy open the window to the house, and slip inside.

Looking over to Jayde, Meredith nodded her head and quietly made their way over to the house, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows. Both girls stood on either side of the window the burglar had entered. Since it was a small job, Jayde didn't bother bringing her new bow with her, and instead fingered her ring daggers, while Meredith climbed silently into the window. Jayde close behind.

Once inside, Jayde saw the shadowy silhouette of the man pick up a small trinket off of the fireplace mantel.

"You know that's not worth anything" Meredith said, causing the man to jump slightly, dropping the figurine on the floor.

"who the hell are you?" the man asked, taking a step towards Meredith, causing Jayde to finger the ring daggers at her hip.

"Oh i wouldn't be concerned with that." Meredith said with a shrug, circling the man. "I'd be more concerned with what i'm going to do" she sneered. Suddenly the man lunged at Meredith, but was quickly dodged. "gotta be quicker that that" Meredith tutted before she brought her knee up, connecting with his nose.

Jayde heard the tell-tale 'snap' and knew that it was broken. Leaning against the wall, Jayde watched her cousin work, thankful that she wasn't the lead on this...mission. So she watched as the man tried to get back up on his feet, and watched as Meredith kicked him back down again

"You see, man, i don't like dicks like you." she said, circling him, "in fact, i think guys like you deserve to be put down." she added. He tried to get back up again, and this time Meredith let him.

"you're a fucking psycho bitch!" the man yelled, clutching his bloodied nose.

"You shouldn't have said that." Jayde said from her spot, shaking her head. She had seen the look in her cousin's eye, and knew that now was not the time to insult her. It wasn't going to be pretty.

"What did you call me?" Meredith said, pulling one of her throwing knives out of the pouch on her belt. "I _hope_ you didn't call me a bitch. Psycho i could handle. But bitch?" she said, shaking her head "that a little extreme don't you think?" Twirling the knife around in her fingers, Meredith debated on whether she wanted to throw it, and plunge it into the mans body. Deciding against it, Meredith put the knife back in the pouch, before walking over to the man.

He backed away, at first, but quickly Meredith took two of the knives out of her pouch and threw them at his feet, pinning him to the floor by his pant leg. "You see" Meredith started. "I'm not very patient tonight. I'm not in that good of a mood" she added, circling him. "And with you mouthing off, being a douche, not helping things." she said, as she stared him down again.

"Get It done, Py." Jayde said, using a shortened version of her cousins middle name, Pyrena. Meredith glanced at her and gave her a short nod.

"Well, my partner is getting restless, so i'm just gunna take these" she started as she bent down and ripped her knives from the floor. "And we're gunna leave." the man tried to run, but Meredith stopped him with a roll of her eyes. "Not you, see you're gunna stay here until the cops come. And you're going to tell them everything that you've done. Including how you killed those two people last week." Meredith added as she walked towards Jayde. "Oh and we'll be watching, so no running" she added with a smile.

Once they were in their previous spot, shrouded in darkness, Jayde called the cops, and the two girls waited. After the cops led the man out of the house, they left.

"You know Mere," Jayde said, turning to her cousin. "You're scary when you're not getting laid"

* * *

**AN: finally Meredtih got some action! How did you all feel about this little filler chapter? Anyways thank you everyone for reading and reviewing and following and stuff, it means a lot. Stay tuned guys cuz there's lots more coming your way. As Always, Leave Love )0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	12. Chapter 12

**Shot Through the Heart**

**- Chapter Twelve -**

The last thing Meredith expected when she went to Starling City Trust that morning, was for it to be robbed. She seriously wished that she had taken a weapon or two with her, and was really regetting it now as one of the masked men fired his gun into the air.

"Nobody lifts their head, nobody gets hurt" he said once almost every one was on the ground.

As one of the robbers began to break into the safe, one of the male bank tellers spoke up "You can't jackhammer into the safe, it's too think." said, causing the man with an Ace on his mask to punch him.

"Shut up!" he growled.

"We're through!" one of the robbers said a second later.

"Three minutes" said the robber with a King on his mask.

Ace-mask checked his watch and said "Make it two."

In the corner of her eye, Meredith saw a man slowly reaching for his ankle. And Meredith knew that he had a gun hidden there.

"are you trying to get us killed?" a woman whispered to him.

"Don't worry" he whispered, "I'm a cop" he added, showing her the badge in his jacket. Meredith just glanced in his direction.

"Please don't do anything." Th woman said. "I don't want to die. Please!" she wasn't whispering anymore, and Meredith wanted to tell her that it would be wiser for her to be quiet. But she couldn't find her voice for some reason.

Suddenly, the robber with the ace mask shot the cop, causing Meredith to gasp in shock.

"What the hell's going on?" as his accomplice in the king mask. Turning the cop over, Ace showed the other man the badge.

"He was a freakin' cop" Ace said.

"Stop throwing shots" King warned him.

Minutes later, the sound of sirens rang outside, signaling that the police had arrived. "You here that!" Ace said "Someone triggered the alarm!" he went to fire off some more shots, but King stopped him.

"Don't!" he said. "That's it, lets go" King told him.

"Starling Cit Police Department" A voice came from outside. "Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up" the cop advised.

Ace looked at the woman who had been talking to the cop, and nodded. The next thing Meredith knew, the woman stood and grabbed a bag from one of the men. Meredith couldn't figure out why the woman was helping them as she strapped masks that matched the robbers on every one's faces.

"I'm sorry" she whispered to Meredith as she put an Ace mask on her. Minutes later Meredith and the rest of the hostages were let out of the building.

**-/-**

Jayde had been training with Oliver and Diggle when Meredith called her. Stepping out of the room, Jayde answered the phone.

"What's up Mere?" she asked and began to worry when she heard her cousins hitched breaths come through the phone. It took a lot to make Meredith cry, the only time Jayde had witnessed the other girls tears when when someone died... or came back to life, in Olivers' case. "Mere?" she asked again.

"'_Do you think you can come back home_?'" Meredith asked quietly. "'_There was an incident at the bank this morning, and i just really don't want to be alone_'"

"Yea let me finish up what I'm doing here and I'll be on my way, okay?" Jayde said softly before going back into the room with the guys.

"His name was Yao Fei" Oliver told Dig, Jayde figured that Diggle had asked where Oliver had learned his moves. The name sounded familiar, Yao Fei, and she wondered if he had any relation to Sao Fei, the man who had trained her.

"He give you those scars?" Dig asked.

"One of them" was Olivers answer.

"And the others?" but Oliver never answered. "You know one of these days you're be straight with us about what really happened on the island" Diggle told him.

Jayde didn't care whether Oliver told them about the island or not. It didn't change what had happened to him, and what it turned him into.

"Absolutely" Oliver said as they started sparring again, taking down Diggle again in a matter of seconds.

"Sweet moves" Jayde smiled from her spot in the chair.

"Yup" Oliver nodded as he walked over to the computer, and pulled up a news article "Scott Morgan runs water and power in the Glades. Jacks up the prices when the people can't pay, shuts them down even in the dead of winter"

"Mega scum" Jayde mumbled as she read over the article. Growing up in the Glades, she had heard of him before, but never thought she could do anything about him... until now.

"Which is at least a month away, look at this" Diggle said, reaching past them and pulling up a different news article "These guys started at Keystone three years ago. Then began moving west, hitting banks along the way. This morning they hit Starling City Trust. Shot on off Duty cop. He's in a coma and the doctors are saying its a coin toss whether he'll make it" he said.

Jayde's heart nearly stopped. Meredith had been at Starling City Trust that morning, when psycho's in masks had robbed the place.

"Of he's a cop, SCPD will be all over it" Oliver said, brushing off the lead.

"Overwhelmed? Underfunded" Diggle said, throwing out a few reasons as to why the cops wouldn't be able to catch the robbers. "Listen, these guys don't hit one time. They hit two or three banks per city, which means right now they're planning their next job" he added.

"I think you have the wrong impression about what it is I do" Oliver told him.

"You take out bad guys with a bow an arrow" Jayde put in. She wanted to tell Oliver that Meredith was at the bank, knowing that if he knew, he would actually do something about it.

"Jayde, I don't fight street crime. That's a symptom of whats wrong with this city. I'm trying to cure the disease" he told them. Jayde just rolled her eyes at his analogy.

"CEO's and crooked entrepreneurs." Dig said "I get it. Listen, Oliver, I'm just saying, maybe you can make a difference beyond the scope of those pages"

"I'm sure you're father wouldn't mind, Ollie" Jayde put in.

"No, you guys don't get it. My father died so that I could live. Live and make a difference by fixing the city that he and the people in this book ruined. Every name that I cross off this list honors that sacrifice" Oliver said. Jayde was slightly getting sick of him singing the same tune. He was starting to sound like a child. But she ignored it.

"Oliver, there's more than one way to save this city" she told him. She'd been doing it for years, with Meredith by her side.

"Not for me."Oliver said "Crime happens in this city everyday. What do you two want me to do, stop all of it?" he asked, causing Jayde to roll her eyes.

"It sound like you have a narrow definition of being a hero." Dig said before he walked away.

"I'm not a hero." Oliver said mostly to himself. Jayde just looked at him and shook her head, before leaving the base.

Originally Jayde had planned on going over to Roy's after training with Oliver and Dig. But after Meredith had called her in tears, and after she heard second hand about what had happened at the bank that morning, Jayde made her way back home.

When she got home, almost twenty minutes later, Jayde found her cousin curled up on the couch with Jager on her lap and a cup of coffee in her hands. Silently, Jayde took off her sweatshirt and went to sit next to Meredith.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked, puling Onyx onto the couch with her. Meredith just shrugged.

"I just felt so helpless" Meredith said after a minute or two.

"That doesn't happen that often" Jayde put in.

"Yea" Meredith nodded "It doesn't. I just kept on thinking that if I had brought my blades with me, I could have stopped them" she added, causing Jayde to sigh.

"Mere, they had semi-automatic machine guns. There's no way you would have gotten out of there alive if you had fought back" Jayde told her.

Meredith just nodded, she knew the younger girl was right. She usually was. Sighing, Meredith sipped her coffee and ran her hand through Jager's orange fur.

For a few hours, the two girls sat around the house, playing with Onyx and Jager and watching TV.

After sundown, Jayde and Meredith decided to go out to eat. As they made their way to the burger joint, a text from Oliver came through Jayde's cellphone. Looking over at Meredith, Jayde quickly told him that she was on her way.

"Hey... Mere" Jayde said to her cousin, she knew that what she was about to do was a bad idea, but it needed to be done. She felt like she had no other choice

"What's up Jay?" Meredith asked.

"We need to make a pit stop." Jayde said as she took her cousins hand and led her in the direction of the abandoned factory.

"Jay, what are we doing here?" Meredith asked a few minutes later.

"Just... wait a minute and you'll see" Jayde responded, leading her down a flight of stairs.

Once they were down the stairs, Meredith's eyes widened at what she saw.

Oliver and Dig were leaning over the table, looking at the computer screen,

"See that guy right there? He's got a temper" Dig said, pointing at the screen, they were watching the security footage from the bank robbery.

"And he shot officer Washington" Oliver clarified, not noticing Jayde and Meredith walking towards them.

"That's right" Dig nodded.

"College ring" Jayde said, looking over their shoulders.

"More likely high school" Meredith put in. Sure she was shocked at first at what she had seen in the basement of the factory. But with robbers on the loose, she had no time for shock.

"That ring will get us an I.D" Oliver said, his brain not processing the fact that two different women had just spoken.

"Yea, but even with photo enhancement, you're gunna have a problem getting a clear shot of the ring" Dig told him.

"True, but he clocked the teller and the police would have had it photographed. It'll be in the evidence lockup" Jayde said as Oliver turned to grab his green hood, looking shocked when he saw Meredith standing next to Jayde.

"Please tell me you're not going where I think you're going" Dig stated, causing Oliver to break his glare at the girls and look at him.

"Diggle, why do you even ask?" he said to the man, before turning back to Jayde "We'll talk about _this_ when I get back" he added before he left. He was not happy with her.

Once Oliver was gone, Jayde seemed to relax. "So whats going on Dig?" she asked.

"You mean since this morning?" he chuckled, Jayde just shrugged. "So you thought it would be a good idea to bring her here?" he asked, nodding over at Meredith who was looking at the arrows.

"She was there, Dig" Jayde told him, glancing over to her cousin "We were getting dinner when Oliver texted me. I couldn't just ditch her after what happened this morning." she added.

"So she was really freaked, huh?" Jayde just shrugged again.

"Mere's stronger than you think" she said, causing Diggle to nod.

"Meredith," Diggle addressed the woman "I take it you already knew what your cousin had been up to for a while now, huh?" he asked.

"Yea," Meredith nodded "I'm the one that signed her up for the martial arts classes and stuff" she added.

"Mere's even come out with me a few times," Jayde told him. "And let me tell you, she's freaking _scary_" she smiled at her cousin "in a good way of course" she added.

The three stayed around the base and talked for another hour or so, before they decided to call it a night and go back home.

**-/-**

The next morning, the four were gathered in the old factory, looking through the evidence pictures Oliver had taken from the Police Station.

"The bank manager Ace punched, his ring left a mark." Oliver said, he was still not making eye contact with either one of the girls. "Larchmont High. High school. I cross referenced his height and relative age with a list of students and alumni"

"That's a pretty long list" Meredith said, wanting him to look at her

"It was" Oliver nodded, still avoiding her eyes. "I dug a little deeper and found Kyle Reston." he said, pulling up a picture or Kyle "Right before Kyle's senior year, not only did he drop out, he dropped off the grid. Along with his family...father, mother, younger brother"

"There were two other guys involved in this robbery." Dig pointed out.

"And a woman. "Oliver said "Aside from Stan Washington, there were twenty two customers and employees that came out of the bank." he added.

Jayde looked over at her cousin and tilted her head. "Tell him" she whispered, causing Diggle and Oliver to look at them.

"Tell me what?" Oliver asked, making eye contact with Meredith for the first time since he got back.

"I was there yesterday morning." Meredith sighed. "I guess that's why Jay brought me here"

Oliver looked at her for a moment and his gaze softened, he didn't want Meredith involved with any of this but he was starting to see that he didn't have a choice in the matter. Then again he rarely did when it came to her.

"Twenty _three_ customers and employees" he rephrased after a minute "nine men and fourteen women. Inside the bank there were nine men and fifteen women"

"They put that bitch in there" Meredith muttered, causing everyone to look at her. "There was a woman not to far from where Washington was, she's the one that caused him to get shot." she said.

"The mom." Oliver nodded "The police are looking for a crew, we're gunna look for a family. Speaking of which, I'm incredibly late for mine." he said, looking to the girls "you two coming?" he asked, Jayde and Meredith nodded, and they all left.

It took them about an hour to reach Oliver's house, where they were going to be having brunch with the Bowen family. Meredith always hated Carter Bowen, ever since she broke his nose at senior prom when he ditched his date to try and feel her up.

"Where's Oliver? He's not out of town, too, is he?" the heard Carters mother asking when they walked into the house.

"Oh, I'm sure he's just..." Moira trailed off, just as the three of them walked into the room.

"Stuck in traffic picking up Jay and Mere." Oliver said "One thing I didn't miss on the island...Sunday drivers. Sorry I'm late" he added as he kissed his mothers cheek and hugged his sister.

"Thank god you guys are here" Thea said to Jayde as the she stood next to her. Jayde just nodded and linked her arm through her friends.

"It's so good to see you" Mrs. Bowen said as she hugged Oliver and kissed his cheek "we all thought you were..." she trailed off.

"Oh, well, we are just happy he's home." Moira put in.

"Hmm. And returning a celebrity too" Carter said as he shook Olivers hand, his eyes drifting over to Meredith for a second.

"How do you mean?" Oliver asked, slipping an arm around Meredith's waist and holding her close, causing her to smile.

"Billionaire scion, castaway for five years," Carter started as they all went to sit at the table. "You know, there's a bidding war for the rights to your life story. At least that's what my agent says" he added.

"Agent?" Oliver asked as he pulled out Meredith's chair before sitting beside her. "I thought you were a neurosurgeon Carter?"

"I know it's crazy right?" Carter started "One minute I'm publishing this book on how long-term potentiation initiated the creation of a slow moving protein synthesis, and the next there's an agent trying to make me the next Dr. Oz" he said, still looking at Meredith, as if trying to impress her.

Jayde just rolled her eyes and put her head in her hand. She had heard the stories of how Carter tried to grope Meredith, and she didn't blame her cousin for breaking his nose. If it was her, then he would have had more than a broken nose.

"Why would you want to be a wizard?" Oliver asked him, causing everyone around the table to chuckle. Of course he didn't know who Dr. Oz was, no cable on the island.

"Who wouldn't want to be a wizard?" Jayde asked, popping a grape in her mouth "I think it would be fun" she smiled.

"Excuse my cousin, she's certifiably insane" Meredith joked.

"Oliver, for all our sakes, start reading 'US weekly'" Thea told her brother.

"Well, the truth is, I just feel it's our duty as Starling City's most fortunate to help those most in need" Carter said, causing Jayde to roll her eyes, yet again.

"Oh, of course" Moira agreed.

"Wouldn't you agree, Oliver?" Carter asked.

"You're the hero, Carter" was Oliver's response. Meredith just looked at him, he was a hero, whether he wanted to see it or not.

"So now that you're back, what are your plans?" Mrs. Bowen asked "Will you be taking a job with Queen Consolidated?" she added. Jayde and Meredith both just scoffed, causing everyone to glance in their direction. The two girls couldn't see Oliver working in the office and controlling pretty much everything in Starling City.

"I'm opening a night club" Oliver stated. Thea laughed as if he was joking, and Moira... well, Moira didn't look happy. She wanted her son to take what she felt was his rightful place at the head of the company. But that's not where he belonged.

"And since I graduated already, I have a job there once it's open. I even plan on going to bartendering school." Jayde said, trying to diffuse the tension, just as Dig walked in, holding a phone to his chest.

"Sir, you're liquor distributor's on the line" he said before leaning in to whisper in Oliver's, just loud enough for Meredith to hear "First Bank of Starling was hit two minutes ago."

"Sorry, business" Oliver excused him self. Meredith looked over to her cousin and nodded slightly.

"We are very sorry to cut this short, but my dog hasn't been out to go... well, you know, in a while. And Mere's cat goes kinda psycho if left alone for long periods of time" Jayde said, trying to make up an excuse for them to leave.

"I also have an article due" Meredith said, looking at her cousin. With that, the two girls left the table to join Oliver and Dig in the foyer.

"If the Reston's M.O. hold, they'll make their escape underground." Dig told them.

"First Bank of Starling is located right above the water treatment tunnels" Meredith put in, causing Dig to nod.

"The entrance is located here" he said, showing them a blueprint on the phone.

They were all about to leave when Moira came in and stopped them "Oliver, where are you going?" she asked.

"Something's come up" Oliver told her "I'm really sorry" he added before the four of them left the house.

After they left Oliver's, they drove all the way to Meredith and Jayde's apartment. Oliver's original plan was to drop the two girls off, and go to the tunnels alone. But Meredith had different plans. Quickly, she changed into her black and red leather outfit and pulled on a black over coat to hide the outfit as she went back down to the car.

Almost a half an hour later, Meredith and Oliver were sitting in the tunnels, silently waiting for the robbers.

"SCPD don't move!" They heard the cops yell out, before one of the robbers fired on them, Meredith would bet good money that it was Ace, he seemed to be the one with an itchy trigger finger.

From their hiding place, Oliver fires an arrow towards the duffle bag of money, trapping it to the concrete. When Ace started firing in their direction, both vigilante's ran to dodge the bullets coming their way. Once behind another pillar, Meredith fired an arrow from the black cross-bow that Jayde had lent her, causing Ace to drop his gun. She wasn't comfortable using the bow, but the small gun-like device was perfect.

"Lets get out of here!" Ace yelled as he tried to pick up the tethered duffle bag. "The cash!"

"Forget it! Let's go!" the man, Meredith assumed was King, yelled at him. Then they were gone.

"All right let's move!" a cop yelled as they finally caught up and began running in the same direction as the robbers. But instead they found Oliver, Meredith was still behind a stone support beam. "It's the vigilante!"

Just as the cops were going to fire at Oliver, Meredith looked around and saw the electrical circuit on the wall. Quickly she fired at arrow at it, causing the lights and power to shut down and allowing the two heroes to disappear into the darkness.

Oliver had found Derek Reston at a bar in the Glades after finding out that the man used to work for Robert Queen, Oliver's father. He had gone to the bar to give the man a second chance, to stop his life of crime. But Oliver didn't truly trust that Reston would take his offer to heart, so he planted a bug on him.

Later on that night, Oliver, Jayde and Meredith were sitting at the base, listening to the audio feed.

"'_I've been thinking_'" they heard Derek say, he was talking to his wife "'_Maybe you were right. Maybe it's time to hang it up, retire._'" That was good news.

"'_But Kyle says we do one more or he'll go out on his own_'" Mrs. Reston told her husband, trying her best to stay with her child as long as she could.

"'_Well, if that's what he wants to do, that's his right, but you and me and Teddy, we're out_'" Derek knew that his eldest son wasn't going to stop robbing banks before he had all the money he needed to be set for life.

"'_ I want to quit, too._'" Mrs. Reston said "'_But I am not leaving without Kyle_'" she added, causing Jayde and Meredith to roll their eyes. They understood the need to want to be with family, but not at the cost of their lives.

Soon after they started listening to the Reston's conversation, Diggle walked down the stairs. "What's this?" he asked as he walked over to the trio.

"Oliver dropped a bug in Derek Reston's pocket" Jayde chirped, as they muted the computer.

"I thought you were going to give the man a second chance" Diggle turned to Oliver.

"That's what I believe in." Oliver responded. "I also believe in covering all my bases." he added, turning the computers volume back up to listen to more of Derek's conversation.

"'_Derek,_'"Mrs. Reston addressed her husband "'_We can't abandon our son. After all this time, he wants to end up the winner. Set for life, otherwise what was the point?_'" She asked.

"'_Alright. One more_'" Derek agreed.

"Now what?" Dig asked.

"We take them down" Meredith said.

**-/-**

A few nights later was Tommy Merlyn's gala for CNRI. He was trying to do everything he could to get her back, to try and prove to her that he cared about her and would do anything for her.

Outside of the gala, Oliver stood with Dig, Meredith and Jayde. "Monitor the Reston's with this." he told Dig, handing him a small device. "When you get a line on their plans, we move" he added.

"And you're gunna do another abrupt exit?" Dig asked.

"I'm getting better at it with practice" Oliver smiled as he took Meredith's arm and walked into the building. On their way to the gala, Oliver had made Jayde and Meredith promise to stay behind and not get involved when he had to take down the Restons. Meredith, however, had other plans.

Inside, Jayde walked away from her cousin to find Thea. Minutes later, she found her friend, who was checking her coat. Just as Jayde was next her friend, Tommy had walked over to them.

"Thank you for coming." he said to Thea, "And you too Jayde" he added, giving both girls a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you for inviting us" Thea smiled.

"Well, I figure the entire Queen family and their check books should be present." Tommy joked.

"Oh, right and how is that going for you so far?" Thea asked.

"It is going amazing and all thanks to you. Thea Queen, the unlikely voice of reason" he said. Thea had told Jayde all about how she had given Tommy the idea to throw the benefit gala. Jayde knew about Thea's small crush on her brother's friend, and she felt as if it was just...wrong.

"Little old me? What did I do?" Thea asked.

"You have me that great advice." Tommy said. "I thought about what the girl was interested in, and, uh..." he trailed off, turning to look at Laurel.

"And you did this for Laurel" Thea summed up, causing Jayde to roll her eyes. Sometimes it amazed her how delusional her friend could be.

"And it's working. Thanks again, sweetie." Tommy said, nudging her before walked back over to Laurel.

"Yea. Anytime" Thea grumbled as she grabbed a glass from a near by waiter's serving tray.

"Thea, I don't think you should..." Jayde trailed off as Thea glared at her and chugged down the champagne. Sighing Jayde just grabbed a glass for herself and drank deeply from it. She didn't drink often, but it wasn't as if she never did.

On the other side of the room, after Oliver left to talk to his mother, Meredith saw Laurel walk out onto the dance floor with Carter Bowen. Shivering in disgust of the man, Meredith made her way over to where tomorrow stood against the bar and ordered herself a vodka martini.

"Hey, Mere" Tommy greeted her, giving her a small hug.

"Hey Tommy" she said, looking over at Laurel who was laughing with Carter. "Ouch" she said as he drink was placed in front of her.

"Yea" Tommy nodded, sipping from his own drink.

For a few minutes, Tommy and Meredith stood there, drinking and making fun of Cater Bowen.

"Did you know that as a doctor, I was able to diagnose myself as a giant tool?" Tommy mocked as Bowen had said something to Laurel. Meredith just laughed and finished off her drink. Just as she did, she saw Jayde and Thea walk over to them and it was quite obvious that Thea was drunk.

"How about a dance handsome?" Thea asked.

"Hey, uh, I thought that we agreed that you were going to call me before you did something stupid." Tommy told her, looking over at Jayde who wasn't even close to being as drunk as Thea.

"You're no fun." Thea pouted, moving closer to him. "I'm going to show you how to have some fun" she added, clasping her hands behind his head as she moved in for a kiss causing Meredith's eyes to widen and Jayde to pinch the bridge of her nose.

"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" Tommy pulled away.

"You said I was amazing" Thea slurred.

"Yea, you are amazing." Tommy told her "But you're also like my sister. My baby sister." he clarified,

"Well, I'm not a baby anymore. Thank you for noticing" Thea said with a chuckle "Laurel doesn't even like you. She doesn't understand you. I do. Why can't you see that?" she asked.

"Thea...Thea it was a mistake to talk to you about girls and stuff." Tommy said, looking over at Meredith. "It was inappropriate and I think it may have confused you" he said, his eyes softening.

"Yea, the rejection?" Thea chuckled. "It is pretty clear. Even if it wasn't, between my mom and Oliver and everybody in my entire life, I'm pretty much used to it by now so..." she trailed off as she brushed past Jayde and walked away. And the three of them watched as she walked right into one of the waiters and caused the drinks on the serving tray to crash to the ground.

"Whoa, whoa. Okay, Let's go girlie" Jayde said. She was the closest to Thea and steadied her before leading her friend away from the crowd.

Seconds later, all four of them were outside, Tommy and Meredith were leaning against his car while Thea crouched behind a few wooden pallets, Jayde holding back her hair.

"Tommy?" Laurel's voice sounded from the door.

"Yep" Tommy responded.

"Is Thea ok?" she asked.

"Oh yea she just ate some bad crab cakes" Meredith tried to cover.

"Are you sure it wasn't something she drank?" Laurel asked with a raised eyebrow. Meredith just shrugged and walked back over to the younger girls.

"Don't worry, I got this." Tommy said after clearing his throat. "You can go back inside. Keep having fun. Looked like you were having a nice little do-si-do with the good doctor." he added. Meredith could practically see the jealousy radiating off of her friend, causing her to roll her eyes

"Tommy, I'm going to let you in on a little known secret about Dr. Carter Bowen. The man is a gigantic ass" she said, causing Meredith to laugh. "And the only reason why I danced with him is because he wrote a massive check to CNRI. Why would you think anything else?" Laurel asked him.

"Way to go Tommy-Boy" Meredith chuckled, patting her friends back before turning to go back inside. "Let Jay known I went in when she's done here, kay?" and with that she disappeared through the door.

"I guess when it comes to you, I tend not to think straight" Tommy told Laurel as soon as Meredith was gone. The two smiled at each other as Thea walked over to them with Tommy's jacket draped over her shoulders and Jayde rubbing her back soothingly.

"Can you call me a cab?" Thea asked Tommy with a small sniff.

"Absolutely not." Tommy told her as he opened the passenger door of the car. "I am taking you home, get in." he instructed her.

"Make sure she gets home safe, Tommy." Jayde told him. "I don't have the energy to hunt you down." she added with a smile.

"Will do, Jay-Jay." Tommy nodded with a smile. "Oh Mere said she went in. She's probably getting ready to leave soon" Jay nodded with a smile and walked inside.

**-/-**

Oliver ended up taking down the Reston family his self. Meredith wasn't too happy with him for not taking Jayde or herself with him, but she dealt with it because Oliver still did his job, whether the girls were there or not.

"What went down wasn't your fault" Diggle told him as the four of them sat in the base.

"I didn't say it was" Oliver responded.

"Ollie, it wasn't your fault." Meredith said softly, resting a hand on his back

"Yea you gave Reston a chance, which was more than he deserved in my opinion." Jayde told him, leaning against the table with her arms folded over her chest.

"I'm not so sure about that." Oliver muttered.

"Well, listen," Diggle started "I'll tell you this much. You say that going after the guys on that list is the way you honor your dad?" he asked, Oliver just nodded "Well, if your dad could have seen you this week, the way you cared about the people he had hurt, the way you stepped up to try and help them, I'd say he'd be pretty damn honored."

"Well said Dig." Jayde smiled.

"Ollie, maybe there is more than one way to save this city?" Meredith offered. All they were trying to do was help him.

"Maybe" Oliver said silently as he leaned into Meredith.

"Oh, by the way Stan Washington woke up. He's gunna be fine" Jayde smiled.

After Dig and Oliver dropped the girls off at the apartment, Jayde and Meredith decided to spend the rest of the night in the living room watching TV and eating ice cream in order to unwind.

"So Ollie totally dug your outfit" Jayde said, taking a bite of her ice cream.

"We're just friends, Jay" Meredith reminded her cousin.

"Please" Jayde scoffed "You know, denile is more than just a river in Egypt" she added.

"Oh yea and what about you and Roy?" the older girl teased.

Jayde just scowled at her cousin before looking at her phone. Her and Roy had been getting closer over the past few weeks, but she didn't know how close they were going to get. It was near impossible for her to deny the fact that she had feelings for the boy, especially to Meredith.

"We're just friends, Mere" Jayde said silently, repeating the words Meredith had always said.

* * *

**AN: so Meredith knows! I hope you guys liked this chapter, I certainly had a lot of fun writing it. Also, I might be a little late updating next week, but don't worry, there will be more chapters! Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed favorited and followed this story, it means alot. Also a gigantic thanks to my good friend Miss E Charlotte for letting me use her OC Meredith and for helping me with ideas for this story :) As Always, Leave Love )09 Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


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